More US states are reporting measles cases as the Texas outbreak expands, surpassing last year’s total, amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.
The Texas outbreak could take a year to get under control, one health official said – during which time it may spread to more states.
“I never thought in 2025, we would be looking at this resurgence of measles,” said Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock Public Health. “And I didn’t know it’d be in my backyard, either.”
On Thursday, several other states reported updates on measles. Ohio reported its first case of 2025 and Maryland announced two new cases. Both states have linked the cases to international travel. Alabama also announced that an unvaccinated child with measles travelled through the state, while Kansas has confirmed eight cases of measles among children this month.
Health departments in cities like Lubbock, where the hospitalised children with measles are being treated, have created mass vaccination clinics where anyone can get the MMR vaccine free of charge.
“We’re trying to remove every single barrier to get vaccinated,” Wells says. “And then we’re working more with messaging from trusted leaders about the importance of vaccination.”
But so far, the Lubbock clinic has only given out about 300 more vaccines than they usually would over the past few weeks.
Without widespread vaccination, the outbreak could continue for another year, she says. Other recent outbreaks have been in densely populated areas, but these cases are spread over 11 counties in Texas, plus New Mexico and Oklahoma.
“We have a large, spread-out population where we’re going to keep seeing measles pop up,” Wells says. “It’s going to take a lot of time to change the perception of vaccines, get people vaccinated, and then get to a point where there won’t be any vulnerable people left for measles to find.”
Source: The Guardian, 23 March 2025
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