Low vaccination rates a warning sign for measles in Arizona
Why it matters: Some Arizona counties have lower measles vaccination rates than in west Texas, where the outbreak has infected at least 159 people since it was first reported in early February and has killed one child.
What they're saying: There are "places here where it could spin out of control, just like it has in Texas. The conditions are right here for that to happen in some parts of the state," Arizona Public Health Association executive director Will Humble told Axios.
State of play: A vaccination rate above 95% is needed to prevent measles from spreading, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Four Arizona counties had lower kindergarten immunization rates for the 2023-24 school year than Gaines County, Texas, the epicenter of the Texas outbreak.
Gaines County's vaccination rate is 82%, which is higher than Gila (79.9), Mohave (76), Navajo (79.7) and Yavapai (75.2) counties, per the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS).
Statewide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 89.3% of kindergartners last school year had received two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, lower than the national rate of 92.7%.
Zoom in: Measles is highly contagious, and "all it takes is a spark," Humble said.
Outbreaks are often driven by tight-knit pockets of unvaccinated people, Megan Jehn, an epidemiologist and professor at ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change, told Axios.
The Arizona Republic reported last year that Arizona has seen an increase in students skipping the measles vaccine under the state's "personal belief" exemption.
Between the lines: The MMR vaccine is about 97% effective against measles, Jehn said.
Humble emphasized you can be vaccinated and still get measles if you go somewhere where the disease is rampant.
Yes, but: Even when Arizona sees measles infections, they're generally isolated cases and not part of an outbreak, said Dr. Joel Terriquez, medical director at ADHS.
Arizona had five cases last year, all unrelated, he said.
Most of the cases Arizona sees are "travel cases," Humble said, and there isn't a lot of traffic between here and the Lubbock, Texas area, where the outbreak is centered.
Threat level: Though measles is a minor illness for most, it can pose a risk for serious complications or even death, especially for children under 5.
That includes acute encephalitis, which is brain inflammation that can lead to permanent brain damage. Other potential complications include blindness, ear infections, diarrhea and pneumonia.
An estimated one to three children out of 1,000 who become infected with measles will die, according to the CDC.
Zoom out: Measles cases have also been reported this year in an area of New Mexico near the Texas outbreak epicenter, as well as in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
The bottom line: The best way to protect yourself against measles is vaccination, the CDC says.
There is no specific treatment other than managing symptoms and preventing complications.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
8 hours ago
- Axios
RTP startup uses AI to fight health insurance denials
A Research Triangle Park startup wants to make appealing health insurance denials easier through a new artificial intelligence tool. Why it matters: A growing number of startups are turning to new AI tools to help patients navigate complex policies and byzantine processes to appeal insurance denials, according to NBC News. The number of prescription drug claims denied by insurance grew by 25% between 2016 and 2023, according to the New York Times. And in 2023, Affordable Care Act insurers denied 20% of claims, Axios reported. Driving the news: Enter Counterforce Health, a startup founded at the Frontier coworking campus in Research Triangle Park. The company's AI assistant drafts customized appeal letters that comb through a patient's policy, looking for the best line of defense, greatly reducing the amount of hours many patients spend drafting appeals. At the moment, few patients appeal denied claims at all, according to an analysis by KFF. Zoom in: Neal Shah, a former hedge fund manager turned startup founder, has been trying to change the health care industry he has found frustrating for years, through a succession of startups run by a handful of employees in RTP. Shah, who left his job on Wall Street to move back to North Carolina to take care of sick family members, is the founder of CareYaya, an online platform that helps connect people looking for at-home care workers with students studying health care. That platform has taken off in the past three years, growing from hundreds of workers based at Triangle-area universities to thousands across the country. Now, he's focused on expanding Counterforce Health, which he co-founded last year to provide free AI tools to patients and funding through several grant awards. The company's platform uses a variety of AI models to run its appeals process, pinging medical journals and insurance review commission data to make a case for why a patient's appeal should be granted. He views it as a way to counteract the algorithms that insurance companies use to deny claims. (Some insurance companies are currently being sued for using algorithms to deny claims, Axios previously reported.) What they're saying: "You end up spending hours and hours researching, fighting on the phone and just stressing the hell out," Shah told Axios about the current appeals process. "And many people will be too intimidated and scared to do that." In some ways, it's become a battle of AI versus AI in the insurance world, Shah added, and if the patient doesn't have a tool, "you lose." What's next: Right now, the Counterforce tools are free for patients and clinics to use. Some clinics are using the service, like Wilmington Health, to make it easier to draft appeals for its patients, and some pharmaceutical companies have begun reaching out to the team about the tools.
UPI
2 days ago
- UPI
Texas declares end of measles outbreak that sickened 762, killed 2
A MMR vaccine information packet is seen at City of Lubbock Health Department in Lubbock, Texas, on March 1, 2025. Texas health officials on Monday declared a West Texas measles outbreak over. File Photo by Annie Rice/EPA-EFE Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Texas health officials have announced the end of a measles outbreak that sickened more than 750 people and killed two unvaccinated school-aged children in West Texas since January. The Texas Department of State Health Services announced the end of the outbreak Monday in a statement, saying it has been more than 42 days since a new case was reported in counties where there was ongoing transmission. "DSHS will continue to monitor for new cases," it said. Texas on Jan. 23 confirmed its first two cases of measles this year in Harris County, followed by two cases in Gaines County confirmed days later. The total number of people infected amid the outbreak was 762, with the vast majority being either unvaccinated against measles or having an unknown vaccination status. Only 21 of the cases had two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, and only 23 had received one dose of the two-dose regime. Most of the infected were also school-aged children, with 225 under the age of 4 and 286 between the ages of 5 and 17. The first death from measles was reported in the state on Feb. 26, with the second death announced on April 6. More than half of the cases were reported in Gaines County, where state data shows that 17.62% of K-12 students were exempt from at least one vaccine, ranking it among the highest exemption rates in the state. Nearly half of all students at one school in the county had filed for conscientious exemptions, according to the state data. Under Texas law, children may be exempt from mandatory vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. Of all those infected amid the outbreak, 99 patients were hospitalized, Texas health officials said. A measles outbreak is considered over when there have been no new cases for over 42 days, which is double the disease's maximum incubation period. Texas health officials are warning that just because this outbreak is over does not mean the threat of measles no longer persists. "Since there are ongoing outbreaks in North America and around the world, it is likely that there will be additional cases of measles this year in Texas," the state health services department said. "Healthcare providers should continue to be vigilant and test for measles if their patient has symptoms compatible with the virus." Measles is a highly infectious disease that is transmitted by direct contact with an infected person or by airborne spread. The United States declared measles eradicated in 2000 following the absence of continuous spread of the disease over a 12-month period. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 1,356 cases reported so far this year are the most since 2,126 cases were reported in the country in 1992. It is also more than the 1,273 cases confirmed in 2019. There were 285 cases reported in the United States last year. The outbreak comes as vaccination rates have been dropping across the country. The CDC states that countrywide, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners has decreased from 95.2% during the 2019-2020 school year to 92.7% in the 2023-2024 school year. A vaccination rate of 95% and above is when health officials say most people are protected through community immunity.
Scientific American
2 days ago
- Scientific American
More Teens Are Getting Vaccines
U.S. teenagers are rebelling. More teens got recommended vaccinations in 2024 than did so in 2023. This trend is the opposite of what's happening in younger children: vaccine rates in the U.S. continue to fall among kids who are entering kindergarten. The numbers come from the most recent report on childhood vaccinations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The uptick among teens is a win for public health as the vaccine framework in the U.S. is under attack. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., head of the Department of Health and Human Services, has placed antivaccine advocates on the CDC's advisory committee that makes vaccine recommendations. The federal government has ended grants for the development of mRNA vaccines despite the safety and success of COVID shots. Since January there have been 32 measles outbreaks, largely among children and teens that did not get measles shots. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. But the new findings suggest that communication between providers and parents can lead to higher vaccine uptake. In 2024 the percentage of teens aged 13 to 17 who got two or more doses of the combination measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot increased from the portion in 2023, from 91.3 percent to 92.6 percent. The percentage of teens who got the combination tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine rose from 89 percent in 2023 to 91.3 percent last year. And the number of teens who got at least one dose of the four-pronged meningococcal ACWY (MenACWY) shot increased from 88.4 percent in 2023 to 90.1 percent in 2024. (The MenACWY vaccine spurs an immune response to four versions of a bacteria that causes meningitis.) The results were published last Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The authors analyzed data collected from the 2024 National Immunization Survey–Teen, a two-phase survey that asked parents and their children's providers about vaccine use. But not all of the trends were upward. In 2024, for the third year in a row, teens' uptake of the HPV vaccine—which protects against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus—remained the same. The national average of teens who have had at least one dose of the HPV vaccine held steady at 78 percent, though there was broad variability from state to state. The researchers reported that, in 2024, less than 40 percent of teens in Mississippi got at least one shot, but close to 80 percent in Massachusetts did so. And communication was key: parents who reported talking about the vaccine with a provider were more likely to have teens who got it. In metropolitan statistical areas (which can include urban, suburban and rural communities), the percentage of teens who got the vaccine was about 18.8 percentage points higher on average when their provider recommended it than when the provider didn't. And in addition to variability among states, there were other differences. In general, urban areas had higher vaccination rates than rural areas and, in some cases, suburban ones. This sort of difference has long been the case in the U.S., where transportation, insurance coverage and provider availability have created wide rural-urban disparities in health care access. For some of the diseases targeted by the vaccines on the CDC's immunization schedule, even the increase in teens getting the shots doesn't mean the U.S. is at a herd immunity level, the point at which the population as a whole is more generally protected from an illness. For example, to achieve herd immunity for pertussis, 92 to 94 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated. The vaccination rate for kindergartners in 2024–2025 was 92.1 percent. Teens were at 91.3 percent, putting the U.S. just under the lower threshold for herd immunity. In 2024 there were more than 35,000 cases of whooping cough in the U.S. In 2023 there were approximately 7,000.
