Two cases of measles have been confirmed in New York City, state health officials announced. The cases are not directly related.
The detection of measles in the five boroughs comes amid an outbreak of the highly contagious disease in West Texas, where 146 cases were confirmed as of Feb. 28. That outbreak led to the first measles death in the U.S. since 2015.
“I encourage anyone not vaccinated against measles to receive at least one dose of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine and get their children vaccinated with two doses,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said.
Last year, 14 measles cases were reported in New York City, a significant increase over the single confirmed case in 2023 and zero cases from 2020 through 2022. However, 605 cases were confirmed during an outbreak in 2019.
Elsewhere in the tristate area, three measles cases have been confirmed in Bergen County, N.J. All three cases were connected to a single child who visited multiple health care facilities.
Health leaders across the country have encouraged people to make sure their children receive the measles vaccine, which is 97% effective at preventing the disease after two doses.
All three children infected in New Jersey were unvaccinated, officials said. Of the 146 Texas cases, 79 were in unvaccinated people and 62 were in people whose vaccination status had not been determined last week.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. backed the measles vaccine amid an outbreak in Texas that has already killed one child. (AP)
Even Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known vaccine skeptic, publicly backed the measles vaccine in a Sunday opinion piece on the Fox News website.
“Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote.