Texas measles outbreak grows to 146 cases, children and teens most impacted

(NEW YORK) — Longer periods of extreme heat has been found to accelerate biological age in older adults by up to two years, according to new research.

More heat days over time correlated with deterioration at the molecular and cellular level in adults 56 years or older, likely because the biological deterioration accumulates over time and eventually leads to disease and disability, Eunyoung Choi, a postdoctoral associate at the University of California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, told ABC News.

Researchers at the University of Southern California studied blood samples from 3,686 adults starting at an average chronological age of 68 years with varying socioeconomic backgrounds across the U.S. and compared epigenetic aging trends to the number of extreme heat days in the participants’ places of residence, according to a study published Wednesday in Science Advances.

“Epigenetic age is one way we measure biological aging, which tells us how well our body is functioning at the physical, molecular and the cellular levels,” Choi said. “…We know that some people seem to age faster than others, and that’s because biological aging doesn’t always match chronological age.”

Regression modeling showed that more heat days, or longer-term heat, over one and six years increased biological age by 2.48 years. Short and mid-term heat also increased biological age by 1.07 years, according to the paper.

Extreme heat was defined as the daily maximum heat index — derived from both temperature and humidity — with a “caution” range of between 80 degrees to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and an “extreme caution” range of between 90 degrees and 103 degrees Fahrenheit, in accordance with the National Weather Service, according to the paper. “Extreme danger” was defined as any heat index level over 124 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers compared the epigenetic age of participants from regions with long periods of extreme heat to those living in cooler climates. There was a 14-month difference in epigenetic age between residents living in places like Phoenix, Arizona, than milder places like Seattle, even after accounting other individual and community-level differences, like income, education, physical activity and smoking, Choi said.

“Two people that had identical sociodemographic characteristics and similar lifestyles, just because one is living in a hotter environment, they experience additional biological aging,” she said.

The 14-month differences is comparable to effects seen with smoking and heavy alcohol consumption — two well-established risk factors of accelerated biological aging, the researchers found.

DNA methylation — the process of chemical modification to DNA that tends to change as people age — is “highly responsive” to environmental exposures like social stress, pollution and, in this case, extreme heat, Choi said.

Previous research has linked extreme heat to serious health risks like cardiovascular disease, kidney dysfunction, hospitalization and even death, Choi said. But prior to this research, scientists did not fully understand what is occurring at the biological level before those health issues appear, Choi added.

“The physical toll of the heat might not show up right away as a diagnosable health condition, but it could be taking a silent toll at the cellular and the molecular level,” Choi said.

It’s important to uncover potential hidden effects of heat on the body because it can serve as an “important precursor” before they turn into more serious health conditions, Choi said.

“We can intervene at the earlier stage,” she added.

Humidity also plays a big role in how the body responds to heat, especially for older adults, Choi said.

“As we age, our bodies don’t cool down as rapidly,” she said.

The new research provides a foundation for the development of targeted public health interventions, the researchers said.

“This provides strong evidence critical for guiding public policy and advocacy initiatives aimed at developing mitigation strategies against climate change,” Choi said.

ABC News Medical Unit’s Dr. Jessica Yang contributed to this report.

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(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.

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(LUBBOCK, Texas) — The measles outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow with 20 additional cases confirmed, bringing the total to 279 cases, according to new state data published Tuesday.

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). Just two cases are among fully vaccinated individuals. At least 36 people have been hospitalized so far, the state said.

In the Texas outbreak, children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases, at 120, followed by children ages 4 and under making up 88 cases, the DSHS data shows.

“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities,” the DSHS said in its update.

The number of measles cases in Texas is close to 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.

Two likely measles deaths have been reported so far in the U.S. this year. The first reported death was in Texas, according to the DSHS. The child did not have any known underlying conditions, according to the department.

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 33 measles cases so far this year, according to the NMDOH. Many of the cases have been confirmed in Lea County, which borders western Texas.

Health officials suspect there may be a connection between the Texas and New Mexico cases, but a link has not yet been confirmed.

The CDC has confirmed 301 measles cases in at least 14 states so far this year, including Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington, according to new data published Friday.

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 (measles, mumps and rubella) 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 ages 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, per the health agency.

In the face of the growing measles outbreak, the federal health agency 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.

ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

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