By I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A measles outbreak in Texas has grown to 159 cases, and now the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sent a team to help local health officials respond.
The CDC announced the plan on X, explaining that its Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) is working closely with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Known as an Epi-Aid, the program provides up to three weeks of on-the-ground support to help local officials make quick decisions during a health crisis.
Texas health officials said Tuesday that 22 people had been hospitalized so far. Most of the cases are in the Western part of the state, in Gaines County, home to a large unvaccinated Mennonite community.
Last month, Texas also confirmed the first death in this outbreak was a school-age child who was not vaccinated and had no underlying health conditions.
This was the first U.S. measles death since 2015 and the first death of a child from measles in the U.S. since 2003.
The CDC had already provided lab support and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines to help control the outbreak before sending in its response team, a report from CNN said.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discussed the situation Tuesday in an interview with Fox News. He described efforts to provide vitamin A, ambulance assistance and treatments including steroids (budesonide), antibiotics (clarithromycin) and cod liver oil to affected families.
“What we’re trying to do is really to restore faith in government and to make sure that we are there to help them with their needs and not particularly to dictate what they ought to be doing,” Kennedy said.
In a separate interview on Fox Business, he spoke about vaccines.
“In highly unvaccinated communities like the Mennonites, it’s something we recommend, but we also understand there is a lot of mistrust of the vaccines,” said Kennedy, who has a long history of anti-vaccine activism.
“There are people who should not be vaccinated in the community because they have autoimmune problems or other immune problems,” he added in the interview. “If you do get vaccinated, you are protecting those people from a possible spread.”
In an opinion piece published Sunday on Fox News’ website, Kennedy didn’t directly recommend the measles vaccine.
“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,” Kennedy wrote. “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles but also contribute to community immunity.”
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the current measles outbreak.
SOURCE: CNN, March 4, 2025
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