Michigan resident dies of rabies after undergoing organ transplant in Ohio: Officials
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(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.
(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a survey on March 6 asking some federally funded researchers to assess how their work aligns with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
CDC-funded researchers were asked whether their research would help combat “Christian persecution,” defend women and children against “gender ideology extremism” or help curb illegal immigration.
They were also surveyed about whether their research included any diversity or climate change initiatives — among other questions that roughly align with recent executive orders.
On Friday, the agency clarified that the survey was only applicable to CDC partners doing work outside the United States.
It’s not clear how many researchers received the email, which was sent by the CDC’s Global Health Center.
“Receiving this survey was deeply unsettling. It’s hard not to see it as an attempt to inject politics into scientific research, forcing us to align with ideological priorities rather than urgent public health needs,” said one researcher who received the survey.
Researchers who received the survey also told ABC News that they were concerned their answers would be used to jeopardize ongoing research or could be used to justify further cuts, especially to research conducted abroad.
“I worry about how these responses might be used to justify funding cuts, especially for critical public health initiatives,” one researcher said.
Earlier this week, a similar survey was sent to foreign aid programs supported by the United States Agency for International Development, according to reporting by The New York Times.
The survey comes amid federal firings, budget cuts and grant cuts to federally funded research, though some of those actions have been blocked in court.
Several hundred people gathered in the nation’s capital on March 7 for the Stand Up for Science rally, and there are similar rallies planned in more than 30 other cities.
In 2023, the federal government funded roughly $60 billion in scientific research, according to the Association of American Universities. Prior government-funded research has led to technologies such as MRIs and GPS.
(NEW YORK) — As measles cases continue to spread across the United States, many Americans may be asking themselves if they need a measles vaccine booster to enhance protection.
An outbreak in western Texas has grown to 279 cases, mostly among those who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Meanwhile, an outbreak in nearby New Mexico has also increased, reaching 38 cases as of Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (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, the CDC says.
Most vaccinated adults don’t need another vaccine dose, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He also said it’s important to call another shot of the MMR vaccine “a dose” as opposed to a “booster.”
He explained that the measles vaccine used to be a single-dose vaccine before a second dose was recommended in the late 1980s.
“In the late ’80s, there were sort of big outbreaks of measles,” Offit told ABC News. “But if you looked at the epidemiology of those outbreaks, it was in people who never got a vaccine.”
He went on, “So it wasn’t that the immunity faded, that the vaccine wasn’t good enough. It’s an excellent vaccine as a single-dose vaccine. The problem was people didn’t get it. So, the second dose recommendation really was to give children a second chance to get a first dose.”
Depending on the year you were born
If someone was born before 1957, they are presumed to have life-long immunity against measles, Offit said.
Before the MMR vaccine was available, nearly everyone was infected with measles, mumps and rubella during childhood, according to the CDC.
Those with a confirmed laboratory diagnosis of measles are protected from the virus, the agency adds.
In 1963, the first measles vaccine became available, followed by an improved vaccine in 1968, said Dr. Gregory Poland, a vaccinologist and co-director of The Atria Research Institute — which focuses on disease prevention.
A very small number of people, representing less than 5% of Americans, may have received the inactivated measles vaccine from 1963 through 1967 during childhood, which may not have offered sufficient protection against the virus. These people would be eligible for re-vaccination with one or two doses, the CDC says.
“So, the first measles vaccine licensed in the U.S. was in 1963 and it was an inactivated vaccine,” he told ABC News. “That inactivated vaccine had two consequences to it. One, it did not produce protective immunity and, number two, it led to — when people did get exposed and infected — it led to atypical measles, and that can be very severe.”
Poland said, at the time, there was also a live attenuated measles vaccine, similar to what is used today “but it was not very attenuated or weakened, and so it caused a lot of side effects.”
He explained that to decrease side effects, physicians would give a patient a vaccine and then a shot of immunoglobulin, or antibodies. While this decreased side effects, it also tended to kill the vaccine virus, not giving people adequate immunity.
For those who were vaccinated with the single-dose vaccine similar to the one used today — or received the MMR vaccine — Offit said another dose is likely not needed.
In 1989, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommended children receive a second MMR dose.
Offit and Poland said anyone who has received two doses of the MMR vaccine does not need to receive another dose.
If someone is unsure if they are immune to measles, they should first try to find their vaccination records. If they cannot find written documentation, there is generally no harm in receiving another dose of the MMR vaccine, according to the CDC. A health care provider can also test blood to determine whether someone is immune, but this is generally not recommended.
In the face of the growing measles outbreak, the CDC issued an alert on March 7 saying parents in the outbreak area should consider getting their children an early third dose of the MMR vaccine.
Texas health officials have also recommended early vaccination for infants living in outbreak areas.
This would result in three doses overall: an early dose between age 6 months and 11 months and then the two regularly scheduled doses.
Poland says it’s important to note that this dose is only for infants living in high-risk areas or going to visit high-risk areas and not recommended for most children.
“Generally, the reason we don’t give [the vaccine] at an early age is that, if the mother was immunized or had disease, the antibodies that she has are passed through the placenta to the baby — those last around 12 months,” he said. “If you give the vaccine prior to that, then some amount of that live virus vaccine will be killed by the mother’s antibodies circulating in the baby, and so it’s not long-lasting, high-titer immunity.”
(WASHINGTON) — Measles is continuing to spread across the United States, as outbreaks grow in western Texas and New Mexico.
Between the two states, 256 cases have been confirmed as of Thursday, mostly in those who are unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status, according to state health officials. At least one unvaccinated school-aged child in Texas has died and another suspected death is being investigated in New Mexico in an unvaccinated adult. At least 10 other states have also confirmed cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As health care professionals work to care for patients, they are also attempting to combat the proliferation of misinformation about how to prevent and treat the disease, some tell ABC News.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been one of the prominent voices on measles, making comments that public health experts say are not accurate.
In multiple interviews, Kennedy has claimed that vitamin A and cod liver oil are effective treatments for measles. He also said that poor diet contributes to severe cases of measles and that — while vaccines prevent illness — they also cause severe illnesses and even death.
Some public health experts told ABC News these statements are not rooted in scientific evidence and could be quite dangerous for the public.
“I think it’s really important to try to stay away from these ideas of fringe theories or ideas that have not been scientifically proven,” Kirsten Hokeness, director of the school of health and behavioral sciences at Bryant University, in Rhode Island, told ABC News.
Vitamin A as a form of treatment
During an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity on Tuesday, Kennedy said that HHS was currently providing vitamin A to measles patients for treatment. He claimed vitamin A can “dramatically” reduce measles deaths.
The World Health Organization recommends two doses of vitamin A in children and adults with measles to restore low vitamin A levels, which can help prevent eye damage and blindness.
However, experts who spoke with ABC News said it is not an antiviral treatment against measles (meaning it does not prevent infections), nor is there one available.
“Because it has been described that patients with vitamin A deficiency can have a more severe course, the WHO recommends low doses of vitamin A for children diagnosed with measles,” Dr. Carla Garcia Carreno, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Medical Center Plano in Texas, told ABC News. “This is a supplementation in case of deficiency, and it is not intended to treat the virus. High doses of vitamin A can have serious consequences.”
“Neither vitamin A nor cod liver oil will treat measles,” she concluded.
Poor diet linked to severe measles disease
Kennedy has claimed that poor nutrition plays a role in causing severe measles disease and that a healthy diet can lessen severity.
While malnutrition can be a factor in severe disease, malnutrition and nutritional deficits in measles patients have historically been seen in underdeveloped countries, according to experts.
Additionally, studies have found that mass nutritional supplementation “followed by an increase in vaccination coverage” can reduce measles infection and mortality.
“Certainly, good nutrition can promote a healthy immune system, and it’s a good idea for everyone to try to maintain good nutrition, but it’s certainly not a substitute for vaccination,” Dr. Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch, told ABC News. “There’s no evidence that it can prevent infection, no evidence that it can prevent an infected person from spreading the virus and contributing to one of these outbreaks.”
“So, I want to be very clear, good nutrition is absolutely no substitute for vaccination to prevent someone’s own risk for developing severe, maybe fatal, measles,” he added.
Claims about the safety of the measles vaccine
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, 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, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.
Kennedy has said vaccines do “stop the spread of the disease” but also said they cause “adverse events.”
“It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself [causes], encephalitis and blindness, et cetera,” he told Hannity, without providing evidence.
Weaver said there is no vaccine that is without risks but that the MMR vaccine is incredibly safe and effective.
“There’s no evidence that it has severe outcomes … similar to what the measles virus infection causes,” he told ABC News. “It certainly can cause very minor reactions at the site of injection, like just about every vaccine, but it’s one of the safest vaccines that’s ever been developed.”
Weaver added that the risks of complications from a measles infection far outweigh any risks from the MMR vaccine.
As for Kennedy’s unfounded claim that the MMR vaccine causes death, a 2015 CDC review published in the journal Vaccine found such claims are deaths reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System – a voluntary reporting system “that accepts any submitted report of an adverse event without judging its clinical significance or whether it was caused by a vaccination.”
The review found that many of the deaths reported to VAERS claiming to be linked to the MMR included children who has serious underlying medical conditions or had deaths that were unrelated to the vaccine, including accidental deaths.
“These complete VAERS reports and any accompanying medical records, autopsy reports and death certificates have been reviewed in depth by FDA and CDC physicians and no concerning patterns have emerged that would suggest a causal relationship with the MMR vaccine and death,” the review stated.
Questioning ‘benefits’ of measles and fatality rate
Kennedy claimed in an interview with Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Seigel over the weekend that is “almost impossible” for measles to kill a healthy individual.
Some people who contract measles may suffer severe complications as a result of infection. While those most at risk include children younger than age 5, pregnant people and those with weakened immune systems, anybody can experience complications.
About in 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who contract measles are hospitalized and about 1 in 20 children with measles develop pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death in young children who get infected.
About one in 10 children infected with measles develop ear infections as well, which can lead to hearing loss, data shows.
Additionally, about 1 out of every 1,000 children with measles will develop encephalitis — which is the swelling of the brain and can lead to brain damage — and up to 3 out of every 1,000 children with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications, the CDC says.
Recently, Texas health officials reported the death of an unvaccinated school-aged child, the first death from measles recorded in the U.S. in a decade. The child was healthy and had no preexisting conditions, officials said.
“The CDC estimates that 1 in 5 people [who] get infected with measles ends up in the hospital,” Hokeness said. “So, this approach to relying on sort of this natural immunity doesn’t make sense when we have a vaccine which prevents it in the first place.”
“But, in short, there’s really no benefit to this idea of natural immunity and naturally acquiring the virus. That’s why we’ve developed the vaccines that work so well,” she added.
Kennedy also claimed in his interview that natural immunity from measles may protect against cancer and heart disease. There is no evidence to suggest either of those are true, experts said.
“If you want to take your chances with getting natural infection, hoping that there might be some very small benefit to that, it’s a very big risk to take, because you may very well get severe measles infection,” Weaver said.
Overall, experts advised relying on scientifically proven medical information.
“We should leverage the knowledge that we’ve gained over the years and not spend our time focusing on alternative possibilities,” she said.
