Michigan officials confirmed a new measles outbreak Thursday near Grand Rapids, bringing the U.S. to eight states with active outbreaks of the vaccine-preventable disease. Earlier this week, Pennsylvania declared an outbreak in Erie County as well.
Last week, U.S. measles cases topped 700, with Texas reporting the majority of them. Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses near the epicenter of the outbreak in rural West Texas. An adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated also died of a measles-related illness.
Even as the virus continued to spread and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention redeployed a team to West Texas, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in a televised Cabinet meeting April 10 that measles cases were plateauing nationally. The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024.
States with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and New Mexico.
The multistate outbreak across Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization has said cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?
Texas’ outbreak began in late January. State health officials said Tuesday there were 20 new cases of measles since Friday, bringing the total to 561 across 23 counties — most of them in West Texas. Two more Texans were hospitalized, for a total of 58 throughout the outbreak, and Reeves County logged its first case.
State health officials estimated Tuesday that about 4% of cases — fewer than 25 — are actively infectious.
Sixty-five percent of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has logged 364 cases since late January — just over 1% of the county’s residents.
The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Kennedy. Health officials in Texas said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure.” A unvaccinated child with no underlying conditions died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6.
New Mexico announced five new cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 63. Three more people are in the hospital, for a total of five since the outbreak started. Doña Ana County reported its first case. Most of the state’s cases are in Lea County. Two are in Eddy County and one in Chaves County.
State health officials say the cases are linked to Texas’ outbreak based on genetic testing. New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult on March 6.
