The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed it is on the ground in Texas on Tuesday to respond to an outbreak of measles that has grown to nearly 160 cases as U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the agency is seeing “very good” results.
“What we’re trying to do is really to restore faith in government and to make sure that we are there to help them with their needs and not particularly to dictate what they ought to be doing,” Kennedy told the news outlet.
“For this particular outbreak, we don’t know the individual who introduced it into the community,” Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, told a Texas House of Representatives panel on Monday.
Officials said the majority of the cases, or 80, were not vaccinated for measles. Five people were vaccinated with at least one dose, and 74 others had an unknown vaccination status.
“The investigations into the cases who are currently classified as vaccinated are ongoing,” state officials said. “A dose of MMR is given to unvaccinated people within 72 hours of their exposure to the measles to lessen the severity of the illness if they get sick from their exposure to the virus. We are looking into if any of these cases received their MMR dose after exposure.”
In an opinion piece for Fox News published this week, Kennedy wrote about the value of the vaccine but stopped short of calling on families to get it, saying the decision is “a personal one.” He urged parents to speak to their health care providers about options.
Last year, the CDC sent out a “health alert” about what it said at the time was an increase in global measles cases and that health providers should ensure that people traveling internationally have had the measles vaccine.