Experts stress the power of prevention as communities face rising risk from preventable illness.
HEALTH:
A prominent immunologist has issued a stark warning of a “post-herd-immunity world” as measles outbreaks ravage communities in the American Southwest, Mexico, and Canada, with inadequate vaccination coverage.
The United States is now facing its worst measles outbreak in 25 years, centred in west Texas and spreading into New Mexico and Oklahoma. The outbreak has claimed the lives of two unvaccinated children and one adult.
Dr Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the virus’s return shows the consequences of declining vaccination. “Measles is the most contagious of all vaccine-preventable diseases – it’s the first to come back,” he said.
As of 1 May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 935 confirmed cases across 30 jurisdictions. Nearly a third of those infected under the age of five have been hospitalised.
Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. But if sustained transmission continues for 12 months, that status could be lost.
The virus is now also spreading in Mexico and Canada, particularly among tight-knit Mennonite communities, where vaccination rates are low.
The World Health Organization says three major outbreaks across North America account for most of the 2,300 confirmed measles cases in the region this year. The risk of infection has grown 11-fold compared to 2024.
Cases are also surging in Europe. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported more than 35,000 cases in 2024 so far — a tenfold increase over the previous year. Romania accounts for 87% of these cases.
In the US, experts say the rise in cases is being worsened by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s promotion of vaccine misinformation.
Though he has expressed limited support for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, Kennedy continues to spread false claims, including that the vaccine contains “aborted fetus debris”.
His department has announced vague plans for new vaccine safety systems and approval procedures, but experts warn these could undermine long-established immunisation practices.
Kennedy also visited affected communities in Texas, claiming that antibiotics and steroids had led to “miraculous” recoveries from measles. Medical experts dismissed this as dangerous misinformation.
“There is no cure for measles,” the American Academy of Pediatrics stated. “It is misleading and dangerous to promote unproven therapies.”
The MMR vaccine is 97% effective. Since 1974, it has saved more than 93 million lives globally, according to the WHO.
