Measles outbreak in Texas hits 481 cases, with 59 new infections confirmed in last 3 days
Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The measles outbreak in western Texas has hit 481 cases, with 59 newly identified infections confirmed over the last three days, according to new data published Friday.
Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).
Three of the cases are among people vaccinated with one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and seven cases are among those vaccinated with two doses.
At least 56 measles patients have been hospitalized so far, the DSHS said.
Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases, at 180, followed by children ages 4 and under, who account for 157 cases, according to the data.
Gaines County, which borders New Mexico, remains the epicenter of the outbreak, with 315 cases confirmed so far, DSHS data shows.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LANSING, Mich.) — A Michigan resident has died of rabies after apparently undergoing an organ transplant, health officials said.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) told ABC News that the patient underwent an organ transplant at an Ohio hospital in December 2024.
The resident died in January 2025 and “a public health investigation determined they contracted rabies through the transplanted organ,” MDHHS said.
The organ donor was not a Michigan or Ohio resident, according to MDHHS. The department said it is not providing any additional information about the resident or the donor.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Henry Callander says his forehead blew up like “a giant bee sting” after a Botox treatment. Via ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — JGL Aesthetics’ Instagram profile promised its clients radiant skin, friendly service and a machine they said could give people toned abs. However, some clients allege that the New York medical spa’s owner injected them with fake Botox that caused negative side effects.
Aesthetician Joey Luther was arrested last Wednesday for allegedly buying counterfeit Botox from China and injecting it into patients, without the required New York medical license, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
The 54-year-old was charged with wire fraud, smuggling and other crimes related to the purchase and import of misbranded and counterfeit drugs at the Manhattan spa. None of the counterfeit Botox was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, prosecutors said.
According to the criminal complaint, an investigation began after one of Luther’s patients said they experienced double vision, heart palpitations, weakness from the waist up and other problems after receiving a Botox injection from JGL Aesthetics.
One alleged victim visited three hospitals to treat her symptoms and was diagnosed with Botulism — a potentially fatal illness — in March 2024, prosecutors said.
Almost 5 million people in the U.S. got Botox in 2023, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
“So I think I saw the biggest uptick in requests for Botox during the pandemic,” Dr. Evan Rieder, a dermatologist, told “Nightline.” “When we were sitting at home during the pandemic, people were really glued to their cellphones and they were really diving into social media.”
Prosecutors say that Luther didn’t have the required New York State medical license to administer Botox.
When one client in the criminal complaint allegedly texted Luther about her symptoms, the complaint claims that “Luther falsely responded that he injected Botox from Allergan,” the name brand.
“If you’re getting something that’s actually not Botox, no one knows what is actually going into that mixture,” Rieder said. “If you have Botox that’s counterfeit, but it’s too strong, you could get Botulism, and it can cause all sorts of side effects in your body where the nerves are being paralyzed.”
The complaint alleges that Luther responded to multiple clients’ concerns, reassuring them about alleged symptoms including worsening vision, difficulty swallowing, headaches and neck fatigue.
While Luther was messaging his clients, the complaint alleges that he was in contact with his supplier to inform them that the product he got from them was tainted.
According to the complaint, “he, in fact, tries to bargain with his supplier, suggesting that, if they want to keep him as a client, that they need to send better product and send it quickly,” trial attorney and ABC News contributor Brian Buckmire said.
Henry Callander was among Luther’s patients, but isn’t part of the criminal complaint. His friends recommended JGL Aesthetics, and he thought he was getting his forehead treated for a fraction of the price.
“It was probably like 20% cheaper than regular Botox,” Callander told ABC News. “Depending on the treatment I was doing, it was probably like $400 a treatment.”
An attorney representing Luther did not respond to a request for comment from “Nightline.”
Luther is out on bail, but could face decades in prison if the complaint leads to trial and he’s found guilty. His next court date is Feb. 12.
The alleged danger isn’t limited to New York — the CDC issued a notice about counterfeit Botox and injections from individuals who were not following state or local requirements in December after 17 people across nine states suffered negative reactions.
In California, Lori Reed said she got Botox and filler treatments from a woman who she thought was a nurse for a few years because the price was right. Eventually, she alleged she had a bad reaction.
“My eyes were swollen and they were beet red,” she told “Nightline.” “And it has not gone away to this day.”
Several years later, Reed said she is still dealing with the consequences, even after getting multiple procedures to reverse the damage.
“For a while, I was very self-conscious. I wouldn’t even date,” she told “Nightline.” “I felt like I looked like a monster.”
According to a civil complaint filed by 16 different women, the injector was never licensed to inject Botox. The suit has since been settled.
She was ultimately found guilty in a criminal case and is serving probation after her six-year prison sentence was suspended.
“I wanted her to reap some sort of consequences for the damage that she had done — I expected her to do jail time,” Reed said. “It turned out that she did not. So I was a little disappointed in that.”
A “Nightline” episode that aired on ABC on Jan. 28, and is available now on Hulu, details the allegations about counterfeit Botox that led to criminal charges.
(LUBBOCK, Texas) — When the first measles cases were confirmed in western Texas, health officials said the infections primarily affected the Mennonite community.
Mennonites, who are part of the Anabaptist Christian church, have a small presence in the United States — and Texas in general — but they have a large presence in the South Plains region the state, and in Gaines County, which is the epicenter of the outbreak.
Many Mennonite communities are close-knit and under-vaccinated, which may have contributed to the spread of measles among members of the community.
But health officials are starting to see cases spread beyond the Mennonite population.
It is spreading beyond this community, “unfortunately,” Katherine Wells, director of public health for the city of Lubbock — which is located in western Texas — told ABC News. “West Texas is where the spread of these cases are right now, and we need to make sure that everybody in West Texas is getting vaccinated and is aware of measles and understands the precautions that we need to take.”
The outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow with a total of 327 cases in at least 15 counties, according to new data published Tuesday.
Nearly all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. At least 40 people have been hospitalized so far.
Just two cases have occurred in people fully vaccinated with the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, according to the data.
Wells acknowledged that it may be easy for people to assume measles is only affecting a small and insular group like Mennonites and that nobody else is at risk.
“West Texas, you might say we’re small and insular compared to Dallas and some other areas,” she said. “But no, this has, unfortunately, moved into many, many different populations.”
“So unfortunately, it is growing and continues to grow,” she continued.
Marlen Ramirez, a community health worker and program coordinator at Vaccinate Your Family, which is an advocacy group based in Eagle Pass, Texas, shared a statement with ABC News, saying, “As a Community Health Worker living and working in a rural border town, I see firsthand how quickly diseases like measles can spread when vaccination rates are low and access to care is limited.”
“While the initial measles outbreak in western Texas affected members of the Mennonite community, the virus easily spreads wherever communities are under-vaccinated—and right now, we’re seeing cases reach into rural parts of Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas,” Ramirez added.
“In many of these areas, vaccination rates are below 90%, well below the 92-94% needed for community or “herd” immunity. That’s what has allowed this outbreak to grow to over 300 cases so quickly. We fear the number of actual cases may be much higher than reported due to confusion and delays in the outbreak response,” she said.
A spokesperson for DSHS confirmed to ABC News that the first cases in the outbreak were among Mennonite community members, but this is no longer the case.
“Since 90% of unvaccinated people exposed to the measles virus will become ill, there are many cases in people who are not part of the Mennonite community,” the spokesperson said. “We do not ask a person’s religious affiliation as part of our case investigation process, so we have no way of counting how many cases are part of the Mennonite community and how many are not.”
Why the Mennonite population was hit hard by measles cases Steven Nolt, professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, told ABC News that culturally conservative and Old Order Mennonites have traditionally been under-immunized or partially immunized.
He said there are no religious teachings or bodies of religious writings that prevent Mennonites from being vaccinated. The DSHS spokesperson also added that that Mennonite religion is not “widely against vaccination.”
“Reasons are not religious but reflect everything from less frequent engagement with health care systems (for those who are more rural) to a traditional outlook that replicates practices of parents and grandparents more than the most current practices,” Nolt said via email.
For example, culturally traditional Mennonites may have participated in mid-20th century vaccination campaigns against diseases like smallpox, leading to their children and grandchildren trusting those vaccines compared to more recent additions to the immunization schedule, Nott said.
He added that Mennonites may also be influenced by the opinions of their neighbors, which may play a role in lack of vaccination.
Nolt also explained that the Mennonites who live in Seminole, Texas, a city at the center of Gaines County — a community known as Low German Mennonites, due to the language they speak — “lived in relative isolation in Mexico from the 1920s to the 1980s.”
“They missed out on the mid-century public health immunization campaigns in the U.S., be they polio or smallpox or whatever (the Mexican government had a reputation for not engaging with the Low German Mennonites at all),” he wrote. “Thus, they are starting from a different place than other culturally conservative Mennonites whose ancestors have been here since the 1700s.”
Nott went on, “My point is, the so-called Low German Mennonites from Mexico, now in west Texas, don’t have that minimum baseline of mid-20th century vaccine acceptance that we see among Old Order Mennonites and Amish in the U.S. because the folks in Seminole missed the whole mid-century immunization push, as they weren’t in the U.S. at that time.”
