The cases of measles in Kansas are more than doubled in the last week, bringing the counting to 20, while another outbreak in Ohio has fallen 10 people, reported local public health officials on Wednesday.
There have been several large outbreaks in the United States this year, including one in the western Texas that has spread to more than 320 people and hospitalized 40. Health officials have worried that the Texas epidemic may sow others.
More than 40 cases of measles have been reported in New Mexico and seven were identified in Oklahoma. In both states, health officials said that infections were connected to the Texas epidemic.
In Kansas, the virus has mainly infected the children not vaccinated in the south corner -ovest of the state. Genetic sequencing suggested a connection with the outbreaks of Texas and New Mexico, said state health officials at the New York Times on Wednesday.
Other fourteen states have reported cases of measles isolated in 2025, more often the result of international travel. In Ohio, nine of the 10 cases were traced in an unvaccinated man who recently traveled abroad.
“Given Morbillo’s activity in Texas, New Mexico and other states across the country, we are disappointed but not surprised that we now have several cases here in Ohio,” said dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the State Health Department.
Experts fear that the drop in vaccination rates at national level has left the country vulnerable to a rebirth of preventable diseases, including measles.
Just less than 93 percent of kindergarten children had measles, paroti and rosolia vaccine in the school year 2023-24, according to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases.
Experts recommend that at least 95 percent of people in a community is vaccinated to avoid outbreaks.
In Kansas, about 90 percent of kindergartens was given MMR shooting in the school year 2023-24, according to state data.
About 89 percent of kindergartens in Ohio shot the MMR that year.
Morbillo, which spreads when an infected person breathes, cough or sneezing, is one of the most contagious well -known viruses.
Within a few weeks from the exhibition, those who are infected can develop a high fever, a cough, a nose that colas and red and watery eyes. Within a few days, a revealing rake racco, first like flat red spots on the face and then spreading the neck and torso to the rest of the body
In most cases, these symptoms resolve in a few weeks. But in rare cases, the virus causes pneumonia, making it difficult for patients, in particular children, attract oxygen in their lungs.
The infection can also lead to swelling of the brain, which can cause lasting damage, including blindness, deafness and intellectual disability. For every 1,000 children who contract measles, one or two will die, according to the CDC
A child died in the outbreak of Texas, the first death of the genre in the United States in a decade. A suspicious death of measles has also been reported in New Mexico.