Measles cases linked to outbreak in Texas reach 309, surpassing nationwide total in 2024
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(AUSTIN, Texas) — The number of measles cases associated with an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 309, with 30 cases reported over the last three days, according to new data released Friday.
This means the total number of Texas cases linked to the outbreak in roughly two months has surpassed the number confirmed for the entirety of last year in the U.S., which saw 285 cases nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown. At least 40 people have been hospitalized so far, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).
Just two cases have occurred in people fully vaccinated with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases, at 130, followed by children ages 4 and under accounting for 102 cases.
There have been two U.S. deaths linked to measles this year, with one confirmed and one under investigation.
The death was the first U.S. measles death recorded in a decade, according to data from the CDC.
A possible second measles death was recorded after an unvaccinated New Mexico resident tested positive for the virus following their death. The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) said the official cause of death is still under investigation.
New Mexico has reported a total of 42 measles cases so far this year, according to the NMDOH. Many of the cases have been confirmed in Lea County, which borders western Texas. Four of the New Mexico cases occurred in people who were vaccinated with at least one MMR dose, while 30 cases were reported in unvaccinated individuals, according to the NMDOH. Eight of the cases presented in people whose vaccination status is unknown.
Health officials suspect there may be a connection between the Texas and New Mexico cases but a link has not been confirmed.
The CDC has confirmed 301 measles cases in at least 14 states so far this year as of last week, including Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington. This is likely an undercount due to delays in states reporting cases to the federal health agency.
The majority of nationally confirmed cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, the CDC said. Of those cases, 3% are among those who received just one dose of the MMR inoculation and 2% are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.
The CDC recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second dose between 4 and 6 years of age.
One dose is 93% effective and two doses are 97% effective in preventing measles, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster, per the health agency.
In the face of the growing measles outbreak, the CDC issued an alert on March 7, saying that parents in the outbreak area should consider getting their children their first MMR vaccine between ages 6 and 11 months, followed by the previously recommended scheduled doses at 12-15 months and then at 4-6 years old, for a total of three vaccinations. Texas health officials have also recommended early vaccination for infants living in outbreak areas.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Women are now being diagnosed with cancer more often than men in certain age groups, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.
Among adults aged 50-64, cancer rates are slightly higher in women, and women under 50 are almost twice as likely as men in the same age group to receive a cancer diagnosis.
The report, released Thursday, found that while deaths continue to decrease, troubling racial disparities persist, with white Americans more likely to survive cancer than other groups.
Meanwhile, the report echoed data from recent years suggesting a worrying increase in cancer diagnosis among younger Americans, with colon cancer rates increasing among adults 65 and younger.
Broadly, the report suggested doctors are getting better at saving lives thanks to better treatments but reinforced worrying trends around rising diagnoses of some cancers, particularly among women. Changes in screening practices, lifestyle factors, obesity, environmental hazards and lower rates of smoking in men may be contributing to the trend, the report said.
Alcohol in particular was singled out as a possible lifestyle factor that may increase the risk of some cancers.
“For colorectal cancer, for example, it seems to be really excessive [alcohol intake] that is associated with increased risk of this cancer, whereas for breast cancer, there doesn’t seem to be any safe level of alcohol, but the elevated risk is small,” said Rebecca Seigel, senior scientific director of cancer surveillance research for the American Cancer Society.
As Seigel explained, higher rates of cancer in young people could also be part of a “generational impact” where people are diagnosed earlier in life and less frequently when they are older.
Lung cancer remains particularly deadly, with 2.5 times more deaths than colorectal and pancreatic cancer. Smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of lung cancer, but other contributors, such as radon, air pollution and genetic mutations, may be driving cases.
“Overall, in this country, nonsmoking lung cancer, by itself, would be the eighth leading cause of cancer mortality, and worldwide, it would be the fifth leading,” said Dr. William Dahut, the American Cancer Society’s chief science officer.
Disparity rates in cancer outcomes remain striking as well, especially for minority populations.
Uterine corpus cancer, for example, has lower survival rates now than 40 years ago, with Black women at 63% survival compared to 84% for white women. Black men and women also face some of the highest death rates for prostate and breast cancers.
“I think the stubborn resistance in terms of outcomes among underrepresented minorities is a concern,” said Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, interim chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.
“We have our VOICES program, which is an attempt to enroll as many African American women from across the country in a longitudinal study, something that hasn’t been done to try to answer some of these questions as to why that persistent burden is there,” he added.
The report does include some good news. While it predicts around 1,700 deaths from cancer per day in 2025, cancer death rates have fallen by 34% since their peak in 1991, preventing nearly 4.5 million deaths over the past three decades. This progress is largely attributed to declines in smoking, earlier detection for certain cancers, and advances in treatment, including breakthrough therapies like immunotherapy and targeted drugs.
Prevention has been a critical focus too, with initiatives like smoking cessation programs and HPV vaccination playing pivotal roles in reducing cancer risk. Public health efforts targeting obesity, alcohol use and expanding access to screenings have also helped tackle preventable cancers by improving early detection.
Cancer experts stress the importance of staying current with screening recommendations. For example, the American Cancer Society recommends most people start screening for colorectal cancer at age 45 or even sooner if you have a family history. For breast cancer, mammogram screening should start at age 40 for women with normal risk and earlier for women at high risk.
The report is a call for people to understand their family history better and take steps to reduce cancer risk, Dahut noted.
“Being proactive on your diet, on your exercise, avoiding tobacco, getting your vaccinations and monitoring alcohol are really all important ways to actually prevent cancer,” he said, adding that research efforts are also focused on finding new ways to detect cancer.
Miranda Guerriero, D.O., is a resident physician at University of Texas at Tyler and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — Meta — the company that operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp –announced on Tuesday it was ending third-party fact-checking.
Some social media policy experts and public health experts are worried that the end of fact-checking could lead to the spread of medical and science misinformation and disinformation. This is especially worrisome as the U.S. is in the throes of respiratory virus season and is fighting the spread of bird flu.
“There’s going to be a rise in all kinds of disinformation, misinformation, from health to hate speech and everything in between,” Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics and open-source intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News. “[Health] is supposed to be a nonpartisan issue, and … we do see people trying to leverage health [misinformation], in particular, toward a political end, and that’s a real shame.”
“I’m hopeful, but I’m also concerned that this new structure that all the Meta properties are embarking on, it’s just not going to end well,” she added.
The social network giant said it was following the footsteps of X, replacing the program with user-added community notes.
In a press release of the announcement, Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer for Meta, said that the choices about what was being fact-checked showed “biases and perspectives.”
How fact-checking, community notes work
Meta started fact-checking in December 2016. Meta’s fact-checking works by Meta staff identifying hoaxes or by using technology that detects posts likely to contain misinformation. The fact-checkers then conduct their own reporting to review and rate the accuracy of posts.
If a piece of content is identified as false, it receives a warning label and the content’s distribution is reduced so fewer people see it.
Fact-checkers put in place following Donald Trump’s 2016 election win were found to be “too politically biased” and have destroyed “more trust than they’ve created,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video posted by the company.
By comparison, community notes work by a user adding context to a post that may be misleading. It is then upvoted or downvoted by other users.
Zeve Sanderson, executive director of NYU Center for Social Media Politics, said after the 2016 election, there was immense pressure for social medial platforms, including Meta, to commit resources to combatting misinformation.
Following the election, most posts being fact-checked were to combat political misinformation, according to Sanderson. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this was expanded to combat medical misinformation, he said.
Sanderson said there were a lot of claims going unchecked online because Meta has not had enough fact-checkers to check every post. Additionally, he said some people didn’t trust fact-checkers.
“There were groups of people online who didn’t trust fact checkers, who saw them as biased, often in a liberal direction,” he told ABC News. “This crowd-sourced content moderation program … it’s going to do different things well and different things poorly. We just don’t know how this is actually going to work in practice.”
Meta referred ABC News back to its Tuesday announcement in response to a request for comment on plans for its community notes or potential spread of misinformation.
Spread of misinformation during COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions were exposed to a deluge of information including news, research, public health guidance and fact sheets, which the World Health Organization referred to as an “infodemic.”
People were also exposed to misinformation and disinformation about what treatments work against COVID-19, how much of a risk the virus poses to children and whether COVID-19 vaccines are effective.
A 2023 KFF survey found that most Americans were not sure if health information they had encountered was true or false.
A report from the U.S. Surgeon General in 2021 found that misinformation led to people rejecting masking and social distancing, using unproven treatment and rejecting COVID-19 vaccines.
Experts told ABC News that members of the general public often do not have enough health literacy to determine if they should trust or not trust information they encounter online or on social media.
Squire said sometimes government agencies do not put out information in an “interesting” format, which may lead people to click on “entertaining” content from misinformation and disinformation peddlers.
“Some of these YouTube videos about health misinformation are a lot more entertaining. Their message just travels faster,” she said. “When you’re presenting scientific information — I know this firsthand as a former college professor — that’s a struggle. You have to be pretty talented at it and, a lot of times, where the expertise lies is not necessarily where the most expedient, fun videos are and stuff.”
How to combat health misinformation
Meta’s change comes as the U.S. faces an increase in bird flu cases and continues treating patients falling ill with respiratory illnesses.
As of Jan. 8, there have been 66 human cases of bird flu reported in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s also flu season. As of the week ending Dec. 28, 2024, there have been at least 5.3 million illnesses, 63,000 hospitalizations and 2,700 deaths from flu so far this season, according to CDC estimates.
Meanwhile, health care professionals have been encouraging Americans to get their flu shot and other vaccines — including COVID and RSV — to protect themselves against serious disease.
Experts are worried that with the change from fact-checking to community notes that misinformation could spread about the effectiveness of vaccines or how serious an illness is.
“I am concerned about the sheer amount of inaccurate information that’s out there,” Dr. Brian Southwell, a distinguished Fellow at nonprofit research institute RTI International and an adjunct faculty member at Duke University, told ABC News. “That’s something that you know ought to bother all of us as we’re trying to make good decisions. But there’s a lot that could be done, even beyond, you know, the realm of social media to try to improve the information environments that are available for people.”
Southwell said one thing that public health experts and federal health agencies can do is to get an idea of the questions that users are going to have about medical topics — such as bird flu and seasonal flu — and be ready with information to answer those questions online.
To combat being exposed to information, the experts recommended paying attention to where the information is coming from, whether it’s a respected source or someone you are unfamiliar with.
“There are various skills that are important, things like lateral reading, where rather than just evaluating the claim, you do research about the source of that claim and what you can find out about them to understand what some of their incentives or track record might be,” Sanderson said.
“This is obviously something that, sadly, social media platforms are not designed in order to incentivize this sort of behavior, so the responsibility is thrust on users to sort of look out for themselves,” he added.
(GAINES COUNTY, Texas) — The number of measles cases associated with an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 146, according to new data released Friday.
Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, with 79 unvaccinated and 62 of unknown status. At least 20 people have been hospitalized so far, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).
Just five cases have occurred in people vaccinated with one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases with 70, followed by 46 cases among children ages 4 and under.
So far just one death has been reported in an unvaccinated school-aged child, according to DSHS. It marks the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gaines County is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 98 cases confirmed among residents, according to DSHS. State health data shows the number of vaccine exemptions in the county have grown dramatically.
Roughly 7.5% of kindergarteners in the county had parents or guardians who filed for an exemption for at least one vaccine in 2013. Ten years later, that number rose to more than 17.5% — one of the highest in all of Texas, according to state health data.
The CDC as separately confirmed 93 cases in eight states so far this year in Alaska, California, Georgia, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Texas.
The total, however, is an undercount due to delays in reporting from states to the federal government.
The majority of nationally confirmed cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Of the cases, 4% are among those who received one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) shot.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC.
Health officials have been urging anyone who isn’t vaccinated to receive the MMR vaccine.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.
Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to the highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
