Measles Vaccine

A colleague who spends summers in New Mexico, where there is an ongoing measles outbreak, had a question for Healio’s infectious diseases news team: If she was vaccinated against measles in the 1960s, does she need another shot?

Measles outbreaks in the United States have presented primary care providers with an ethical dilemma — how to balance a patient’s right to forgo vaccinations with the safety of other vulnerable patients who may be put at risk because of that choice.

The measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico has grown to include nearly 450 cases in just 2 months, health officials reported.

An adult in New Mexico tested positive for measles after dying, state health officials announced Thursday amid a growing outbreak of the highly contagious disease centered in neighboring Texas.

Nearly one in six U.S. children received at least one vaccine dose outside the recommended age guidelines during a recent 10-year period, according to study findings published in Pediatrics.

Routine childhood immunizations have prevented 1.1 million deaths in the United States since the CDC’s Vaccines for Children program launched in 1994, according to researchers.

Measles cases increased globally by 20% in 2023, and roughly 22 million children missed their first measles vaccine dose, according to the CDC and WHO’s annual global measles report.