Latest news with #KatherineWells
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Measles cases seem to be slowing down in the US. What's behind it?
About a month ago, the rate of new measles cases was accelerating at a seemingly unprecedented rate with more than 100 infections being confirmed every week. However, over the last couple of weeks, the rate of newly confirmed cases appears to be slowing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed an average of 22 weekly cases over the last two weeks. MORE: Amid growing Texas outbreak, how contagious is measles? Even in western Texas, which had been driving most new cases in the U.S., about 11 cases have been confirmed since May 23. Public health experts told ABC News they believe measles cases are slowing down due to a mix of vaccination, a build of natural immunity and people staying home when sick. The CDC only includes confirmed cases, therefore not all cases may be accounted for. "It was really about two weeks ago where we're going, 'Is this really slowing down?'" Katherine Wells, director of public health for the in Lubbock, Texas, told ABC News. The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, 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. Health officials in Texas also expanded vaccination recommendations for those between 6 months and 12 months old to receive a third earlier dose. Wells said Lubbock saw an increase in children and adults getting vaccinated, including parents who previously did not believe in vaccination. "It's parents that were more in the line of, 'I didn't get my child vaccinated because there's perceived risk with the vaccine, and why vaccinate for a virus that I've never seen before?'" Wells said. "And then when we started seeing measles in the community, I think that their individual risk assessment changed, and they were like, 'OK, well, now we'll get that vaccine.'" Wells estimates that at least 2,500 additional vaccines were distributed in the community based on data received from the state health department and other health care providers. Dr. Perry Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health in New Jersey, said most people in the U.S. are vaccinated against measles. "In the United States, we still have a good proportion of the population that is vaccinated for measles, which means that we have some level of protection as compared to COVID-19, which we didn't have any protection from when it first broke out," he said. When the first measles cases were confirmed in western Texas, health officials said the infections primarily affected insular communities, such as the Mennonite community. Since then, measles has likely run through those communities, infecting those who were unvaccinated and mostly sparing those with natural immunity or vaccine-induced immunity. MORE: Amid growing Texas outbreak, how contagious is measles? "At a certain point, with people contracting measles, they're also developing immunity," Wells said. "We had a lot of cases in one community. But with that, they've also built up natural immunity to measles, so that just adds more kind of speed bumps and slows down the virus from spreading." Dr. Jason Schwartz, an associate professor of public health in the Yale School of Public Health, explained that measles is incredibly contagious. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC. "Ultimately that reservoir of unvaccinated individuals -- who are either too young to be vaccinated or can't be vaccinated or had family members who chose not to vaccinate them -- ultimately that gets exhausted," he told ABC News. "So, I think that's the story here and the idea that the outbreak, to some degree, kind of burned itself out in terms of its acceptable population." Schwartz did add that the U.S. is still seeing flare-ups of isolated measles cases and small outbreaks in various part of the U.S. not associated with large outbreaks seen in Texas or New Mexico. On Tuesday, Nebraska health officials confirmed a measles case in a "vaccinated child with no out-of-state travel history," making Nebraska the 32nd state to report a case of measles this year. Anecdotally, Wells said she believed some people in Lubbock and the surrounding community changed their behavior in response to measles. With public awareness campaigns, people began staying home when they knew they were infected, which has limited exposures in places like doctors' offices and day cares, she said. "We're not seeing as many people going into the doctor's office ... and we're not seeing seeing hospitalizations like we were seeing before … which is a very good sign," Wells said. Halkitis said this change of behavior is similar to the mpox outbreak in 2022. "My comparison to that is mpox, where we saw a huge change in behaviors in gay men and a large uptake in vaccination," he said. "I haven't seen a similar push [with measles]. We're talking about, remember, a small segment of the population that's unvaccinated. So, you have a hard-core group of people that seems somewhat intransigent in their ability to change their behavior around vaccines." Although measles is not seasonal, Halkitis said the real indicator of whether measles will continue trending down is if cases stabilize in the fall, when kids are back in school and airborne viruses are easier to spread. Measles cases seem to be slowing down in the US. What's behind it? originally appeared on
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Measles cases seem to be slowing down in the US. What's behind it?
About a month ago, the rate of new measles cases was accelerating at a seemingly unprecedented rate with more than 100 infections being confirmed every week. However, over the last couple of weeks, the rate of newly confirmed cases appears to be slowing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed an average of 22 weekly cases over the last two weeks. MORE: Amid growing Texas outbreak, how contagious is measles? Even in western Texas, which had been driving most new cases in the U.S., about 11 cases have been confirmed since May 23. Public health experts told ABC News they believe measles cases are slowing down due to a mix of vaccination, a build of natural immunity and people staying home when sick. The CDC only includes confirmed cases, therefore not all cases may be accounted for. "It was really about two weeks ago where we're going, 'Is this really slowing down?'" Katherine Wells, director of public health for the in Lubbock, Texas, told ABC News. The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, 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. Health officials in Texas also expanded vaccination recommendations for those between 6 months and 12 months old to receive a third earlier dose. Wells said Lubbock saw an increase in children and adults getting vaccinated, including parents who previously did not believe in vaccination. "It's parents that were more in the line of, 'I didn't get my child vaccinated because there's perceived risk with the vaccine, and why vaccinate for a virus that I've never seen before?'" Wells said. "And then when we started seeing measles in the community, I think that their individual risk assessment changed, and they were like, 'OK, well, now we'll get that vaccine.'" Wells estimates that at least 2,500 additional vaccines were distributed in the community based on data received from the state health department and other health care providers. Dr. Perry Halkitiis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health in New Jersey, said most people in the U.S. are vaccinated against measles. "In the United States, we still have a good proportion of the population that is vaccinated for measles, which means that we have some level of protection as compared to COVID-19, which we didn't have any protection from when it first broke out," he said. When the first measles cases were confirmed in western Texas, health officials said the infections primarily affected insular communities, such as the Mennonite community. Since then, measles has likely run through those communities, infecting those who were unvaccinated and mostly sparing those with natural immunity or vaccine-induced immunity. MORE: Amid growing Texas outbreak, how contagious is measles? "At a certain point, with people contracting measles, they're also developing immunity," Wells said. "We had a lot of cases in one community. But with that, they've also built up natural immunity to measles, so that just adds more kind of speed bumps and slows down the virus from spreading." Dr. Jason Schwartz, an associate professor of public health in the Yale School of Public Health, explained that measles is incredibly contagious. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC. "Ultimately that reservoir of unvaccinated individuals -- who are either too young to be vaccinated or can't be vaccinated or had family members who chose not to vaccinate them -- ultimately that gets exhausted," he told ABC News. "So, I think that's the story here and the idea that the outbreak, to some degree, kind of burned itself out in terms of its acceptable population." Schwartz did add that the U.S. is still seeing flare-ups of isolated measles cases and small outbreaks in various part of the U.S. not associated with large outbreaks seen in Texas or New Mexico. On Tuesday, Nebraska health officials confirmed a measles case in a "vaccinated child with no out-of-state travel history," making Nebraska the 32nd state to report a case of measles this year. Anecdotally, Wells said she believed some people in Lubbock and the surrounding community changed their behavior in response to measles. With public awareness campaigns, people began staying home when they knew they were infected, which has limited exposures in places like doctors' offices and day cares, she said. "We're not seeing as many people going into the doctor's office ... and we're not seeing seeing hospitalizations like we were seeing before … which is a very good sign," Wells said. Halkiitis said this change of behavior is similar to the mpox outbreak in 2022. "My comparison to that is mpox, where we saw a huge change in behaviors in gay men and a large uptake in vaccination," he said. "I haven't seen a similar push [with measles]. We're talking about, remember, a small segment of the population that's unvaccinated. So, you have a hard-core group of people that seems somewhat intransigent in their ability to change their behavior around vaccines." Although measles is not seasonal, Halkitis said the real indicator of whether measles will continue trending down is if cases stabilize in the fall, when kids are back in school and airborne viruses are easier to spread. Measles cases seem to be slowing down in the US. What's behind it? originally appeared on
27-05-2025
- Health
Measles cases seem to be slowing down in the US. What's behind it?
About a month ago, the rate of new measles cases was accelerating at a seemingly unprecedented rate with more than 100 infections being confirmed every week. However, over the last couple of weeks, the rare of new confirmed cases appears to be slowing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed an average of 22 weekly cases over the last two weeks. Even in western Texas, which had been driving most new cases in the U.S., about 11 cases have been confirmed since May 23. Public health experts told ABC News they believe measles cases are slowing down due to a mix of vaccination, a build of natural immunity and people staying home when sick. The CDC only includes confirmed cases, therefore not all cases may be accounted for. "It was really about two weeks ago where we're going, 'Is this really slowing down?'" Katherine Wells, director of public health for the in Lubbock, Texas, told ABC News. Increase in vaccination The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, 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. Health officials in Texas also expanded vaccination recommendations for those between 6 months and 12 months old to receive a third earlier dose. Wells said Lubbock saw an increase in children and adults getting vaccinated, including parents who previously did not believe in vaccination. "It's parents that were more in the line of, 'I didn't get my child vaccinated because there's perceived risk with the vaccine, and why vaccinate for a virus that I've never seen before?'" Wells said. "And then when we started seeing measles in the community, I think that their individual risk assessment changed, and they were like, 'OK, well, now we'll get that vaccine.'" Wells estimates that at least 2,500 additional vaccines were distributed in the community based on data received from the state health department and other health care providers. Dr. Perry Halkitiis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health in New Jersey, said most people in the U.S. are vaccinated against measles. "In the United States, we still have a good proportion of the population that is vaccinated for measles, which means that we have some level of protection as compared to COVID-19, which we didn't have any protection from when it first broke out," he said. Buildup of natural immunity When the first measles cases were confirmed in western Texas, health officials said the infections primarily affected insular communities, such as the Mennonite community. Since then, measles has likely run through those communities, infecting those who were unvaccinated and mostly sparing those with natural immunity or vaccine-induced immunity. "At a certain point, with people contracting measles, they're also developing immunity," Wells said. "We had a lot of cases in one community. But with that, they've also built up natural immunity to measles, so that just adds more kind of speed bumps and slows down the virus from spreading." Dr. Jason Schwartz, an associate professor of public health in the Yale School of Public Health, explained that measles is incredibly contagious. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC. "Ultimately that reservoir of unvaccinated individuals -- who are either too young to be vaccinated or can't be vaccinated or had family members who chose not to vaccinate them -- ultimately that gets exhausted," he told ABC News. "So, I think that's the story here and the idea that the outbreak, to some degree, kind of burned itself out in terms of its acceptable population." Schwartz did add that the U.S. is still seeing flare-ups of isolated measles cases and small outbreaks in various part of the U.S. not associated with large outbreaks seen in Texas or New Mexico. On Tuesday, Nebraska health officials confirmed a measles case in a "vaccinated child with no out-of-state travel history," making Nebraska the 32nd state to report a case of measles this year. Changing behavior Anecdotally, Wells said she believed some people in Lubbock and the surrounding community changed their behavior in response to measles. With public awareness campaigns, people began staying home when they knew they were infected, which has limited exposures in places like doctors' offices and day cares, she said. "We're not seeing as many people going into the doctor's office ... and we're not seeing seeing hospitalizations like we were seeing before … which is a very good sign," Wells said. Halkiitis said this change of behavior is similar to the mpox outbreak in 2022. "My comparison to that is mpox, where we saw a huge change in behaviors in gay men and a large uptake in vaccination," he said. "I haven't seen a similar push [with measles]. We're talking about, remember, a small segment of the population that's unvaccinated. So, you have a hard-core group of people that seems somewhat intransigent in their ability to change their behavior around vaccines." Although measles is not seasonal, Halkitis said the real indicator of whether measles will continue trending down is if cases stabilize in the fall, when kids are back in school and airborne viruses are easier to spread.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
As Texas's measles outbreak slows, officials warn of rise in other states
The measles outbreak in Texas is showing signs of slowing, though other states are seeing more cases and health officials are warning against complacency as the US continues to experience high rates of measles amid falling vaccination rates. It has been a handful of days since anyone in Lubbock, Texas, has tested positive, and there are no known measles hospitalizations at the children's hospital in the city, which has also cared for children from nearby Gaines county. 'We're really cautiously optimistic,' said Katherine Wells, the director of Lubbock Public Health. It takes 42 days with no new measles cases to declare a community's outbreak is over, so Lubbock is not out of the woods yet, she said. Wastewater analyses indicate infections may be going down in El Paso and Lubbock, said Anthony Maresso, a professor of molecular virology and microbiology at the Baylor College of Medicine who is part of a team monitoring wastewater pathogens in 15 cities across Texas. But this doesn't mean the danger has passed. Wells and Maresso warned against letting up on momentum against the deadly disease outbreak. 'We're still seeing measles cases in El Paso. We're seeing measles cases in some of the other states in the central United States. It really just takes one person in a car who's infectious to introduce it into another community,' Wells said. Texas announced six new cases on Friday for a total of 728 this year. A total of 94 people have been hospitalized in the Texas outbreak and two school-aged children died. The west Texas outbreak has also spread to a handful of other states. Officials in New Mexico announced on Thursday the tally had risen to 76 cases, and they confirmed that the death of an adult in March was indeed caused by measles. There have been 58 cases in Kansas and 17 cases in Oklahoma, in addition to other states seeing separate outbreaks. The US now has a total of 1,024 confirmed measles cases, which makes 2025 the second-worst year already for measles since the virus was declared eliminated from the US in 2000. The outbreak may be losing steam in west Texas because of successful vaccination campaigns and because many people who were not vaccinated have now been infected. Although children have suffered the bulk of cases, about two-thirds of the cases in El Paso are among adults. Officials recommend that anyone in the outbreak areas unsure of their vaccination status should get a measles booster shot. Yet Robert F Kennedy Jr, the head of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has repeatedly spread misinformation about the measles vaccine. 'You have consistently been undermining the measles vaccine,' Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, told Kennedy at a 14 May hearing on the HHS budget. 'You told the public that the vaccine wanes very quickly. You went on the Dr Phil show and said that the measles vaccine was never fully tested for safety. You said there's fetal debris in the measles vaccine,' Murphy said. 'All true. All true,' Kennedy said. 'None of that is true,' Murphy responded. 'Of course it's true,' Kennedy said. Statements like these undermine the public's confidence in vaccines at a critical time, experts said. Communities that have fallen below the 95% threshold for community immunity (also known as herd immunity) should run vaccination campaigns now, before new outbreaks begin, both Wells and Maresso said. 'The easiest thing you can do, in this case, is just put out an educational campaign around closing the vaccine gap,' said Maresso. 'If we had vaccine coverage above 95%, we would not see these outbreaks. It's that effective.' Wells added that 'what we've learned here is that there's a lot of communities across the US that have these lower vaccination rates.' Summer tends to be a high season for travel, and travelers may import measles from a state or country experiencing an outbreak into at-risk communities like these, Wells said. 'We see lots of movement in the summer,' Wells continued. 'So you see lots of people traveling internationally to places that might have endemic measles, that can reintroduce it into any vulnerable community across the United States.' Monitoring wastewater can serve as an early warning sign of a budding outbreak, especially in places with low vaccination rates. The Texas wastewater monitoring was funded by the state legislature through the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute (TEPHI), created during the Covid pandemic 'as kind of a Texas version of the CDC', Maresso said. 'We saw a signal for measles in the wastewater before any of this outbreak discussion in Texas or really before it started to become a headline worldwide,' Maresso said. 'If we are seeing the earliest stages of an outbreak, it gives us a lead time to warn public health folks: 'There are cases. You're probably not seeing them on the clinical radar, but there are cases in your community, and you should expect that you're going to start to see cases – and if they're not vaccinated, it's going to get worse.'' Local leaders should prepare for measles outbreaks now, Wells said. 'Some of it's education to your physicians, your schools, your daycares, about measles, what the rash looks like, just so that people are paying attention to that,' she said. Public health officials should also understand their testing capabilities and the logistics of, for instance, transporting specimens to laboratories. That way, 'you're prepared and it's at the front of your mind – not sitting back in some dusty textbook,' Wells said. But all of that work requires funding. While public health departments have frequently worked on shoestring budgets, the Trump administration has made funding even more precarious. 'There was a clawback of the Covid funding that was available to local health departments,' Wells said. And with other federal funds for public health, 'it's even harder to follow exactly what's going on,' Wells noted. 'I'm concerned. It's so important for us to have local public health departments that can respond to things like measles or whatever the next outbreak is.'
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
As measles outbreak slows in West Texas, doctors remain on alert
The measles outbreak that's sickened hundreds and killed two young girls since January appears to be slowing in West Texas as the virus runs out of people to infect. On Tuesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported a total of 702 measles cases, an increase of 19 since the agency's last update on Friday. Ninety-one people have been hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak. About two-thirds were kids. But for the second week in a row, no children are hospitalized with the virus in West Texas, said Katherine Wells, the public health director for the city of Lubbock, located at the epicenter of the outbreak. 'I'm hopeful that things are slowing down,' Wells said. Still, she and others who've been on the front lines of the outbreak were cautious. 'I don't think it's over, but I do think it's beginning to taper a little bit now,' said Dr. Lara Johnson, a pediatrician and chief medical officer at Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock. 'That could change tomorrow.' Measles is so contagious, Johnson said, it can easily infiltrate vulnerable, mostly unvaccinated, communities. At this point, she said, it seems the virus has made its way through many West Texas communities with low vaccination rates. 'Outbreaks burn themselves out,' Johnson said. 'Everyone who's susceptible in the community becomes not susceptible, either because they have the illness, or perhaps they choose to vaccinate.' Doctors on the ground said there's been a slight uptick in people choosing to get themselves or their children vaccinated. Others have been convinced to stay home while contagious to prevent further spread. Mostly, however, measles has likely run out of people to infect among the vulnerable population. Even as the outbreak slows in West Texas, it's growing elsewhere. As of Tuesday, there were 987 measles cases nationwide, according to an NBC News tally of state health departments. It's the largest number of measles cases since 2019, when more than 1,200 cases were reported, driven by an outbreak in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York. Most of the current cases are related to international travel. Montana and North Dakota are now reporting eight and four cases, respectively. But some of the outbreaks in other states are linked directly to cases in West Texas. Fifty-seven measles cases, including one death in an adult, have been reported in New Mexico. Health officials in Kansas report 46 cases, and 17 have been reported in Oklahoma. It's almost certain that reported illnesses are a vast underestimate of the true number of measles cases, experts say. This article was originally published on
