Measles outbreak spreads in US amid vaccine hesitancy and misinformation

Multiple US states reported measles cases last week as an outbreak that began in Texas expanded to neighboring states amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy that has alarmed public health officials.

- Melody Schreiber

There were 285 cases of measles reported in the US last year. So far, there have been 378 confirmed cases in the first few months of 2025.

An estimated 309 of those cases are in Texas, where there have been 40 hospitalizations and one death of an unvaccinated six-year-old girl.

The outbreak has spread to neighboring New Mexico, where 42 cases, two hospitalizations and one death of an unvaccinated adult have been confirmed. It also crossed the state border to Oklahoma, which last week announced four probable cases.

Meanwhile, Ohio confirmed its first measles case of 2025 and Maryland announced two new cases. Both states linked the cases to international travel. Alabama also announced that an unvaccinated child with measles had traveled through the state, while Kansas has confirmed eight cases of measles among children this month.

The figures came days after the parents of the girl who died in Gaines county, Texas, spoke out against measles vaccination, appearing in a video with Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization previously helmed by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

"We would absolutely not take the MMR," said the girl's mother, referring to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. "The measles wasn't that bad. They got over it," she said of her four other children.