The US is battling a concerning early surge of a new ‘super flu,’ with cases rapidly rising, schools closing and hospitals enforcing mask mandates.
But the annual winter virus isn’t the only deadly disease ‘skyrocketing,’ health officials warn.
Cases of the measles, the world’s most infectious disease that had been declared eliminated in the US in 2000, continue to grow, following a deadly outbreak in Texas earlier this year amongst a largely unvaccinated group in a religious community.
Measles has now infected 1,958 Americans and killed three people this year. It’s the largest outbreak since 2,126 cases were reported in 1992.
Last week, public health officials in Connecticut reported the state’s first measles case since 2021.
In South Carolina, 27 new measles cases were recorded from just Friday to Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 142 cases this year. There was one case in 2024. Additionally, more than 250 people are being quarantined in the state due to the ongoing outbreak.
Dr Renee Dua, medical advisor to Ten Dollar Telehealth, told Daily Mail: ‘The current measles outbreaks in the US are a direct consequence of falling childhood vaccination rates. Measles requires about 95 percent community immunity to prevent spread, and many regions are now below that threshold.’
But it isn’t just the measles that vaccine hesitancy and misinformation is fueling. Dua added: ‘Vaccine misinformation is a major driver of declining uptake, not only for MMR and varicella, but increasingly for routine vaccines like the flu shot. This erosion of trust has accelerated since the Covid era.’
Measles is an infectious, but preventable, disease caused by a virus that leads to flu-like symptoms, a rash that starts on the face and spreads down the body (stock image)
Dr Dua continued: ‘We are seeing real consequences: preventable outbreaks, hospitalizations, and deaths from diseases that were previously well controlled. These are measurable public-health failures.
‘Vaccines remain among the safest and most effective tools in medicine. Rebuilding trust through clear, evidence-based communication is now as critical as vaccine access itself.’
Measles, mumps and rubella are prevented via the MMR vaccine. The nationwide MMR vaccination rate is 92.5 percent.
The MMR is 97 percent effective in preventing infection for those who receive both doses, according to the CDC. One dose is 93 percent effective.
‘And for this reason, we’re urging those who are not vaccinated to consider getting that protection now.’
In the Connecticut case, officials said they were conducting contact tracing to curb the spread of the highly contagious virus.
Health officials said in a press release that the patient was a child from Fairfield County under the age of 10. They are unvaccinated and had recently traveled internationally.
Across the country in Utah, cases have grown to 122 this year, with 26 new cases in the past three weeks. In the state, there were no cases in 2024 and one in 2023. In just the past two months, 111 people have been sickened.
In Arizona, which saw five measles cases in 2024, a surge has led to 182 this year.
South Carolina epidemiologist Linda Bell said at a news briefing last week: ‘Accelerating is an accurate term. That is a spike in cases we are concerned about.”
In a separate statement from October, Bell said: ‘We actually anticipate that more cases may occur. The measles virus won’t be contained within schools, within school districts or by county lines, but the MMR vaccine, by providing lifelong immunity to the majority of those vaccinated, will contain the virus.’
Measles is considered the world’s most infectious disease because people who are not vaccinated have a 90 percent chance of getting sick if they are exposed, even from sharing the same air, briefly or hours later, with someone who has measles.
Three in 1,000 people who contract measles will die.
Of the current cases, 500 are in Americans under 5 years old; 786 are in 5- to 19-year-olds; 613 are among Americans 20 and older; and 13 cases are in people of unknown age.
According to the CDC, 93 percent of cases are in people unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status. Three percent have received one dose of the MMR vaccine and four percent have received both doses.
Of those sickened in the US, 222, 11 percent, are hospitalized, with the majority of those, 20 percent, being children under 5.
Measles is an infectious, but preventable, disease caused by a virus that leads to flu-like symptoms, a rash that starts on the face and spreads down the body, and, in severe cases, pneumonia, seizures, brain inflammation, permanent brain damage, and death.
The virus is spread through direct contact with infectious droplets or through the air.
Patients with a measles infection are contagious from four days before the rash through four days after the rash appears.
Deaths typically occur from acute encephalitis, or brain swelling, when the virus travels to the central nervous system, or pneumonia if it migrates to the lungs.
Before the current two-dose childhood vaccine’s approval in 1968, there were up to 500 US deaths each year from measles, 48,000 hospitalizations and 1,000 cases of brain swelling.
Roughly three million to four million people were infected every year.
