Measles News and Research

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Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. It remains a leading cause of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. An estimated 197 000 people died from measles in 2007, mostly children under the age of five.

Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family. The measles virus normally grows in the cells that line the back of the throat and the lungs. It is a human disease not known to occur in animals.

Surge in violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo leads to healthcare crisis

The recent surge in violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has led to significant loss of life, trauma, displacement, and the destruction of critical health infrastructure, exacerbating an already dire situation for millions of people.

8 Feb 2025

Measles outbreak mounts among children in one of Texas’ least vaccinated counties

A measles outbreak is growing in a Texas county with dangerously low vaccination rates.

7 Feb 2025

Mayo Clinic researchers create organoid models for uveal melanoma study

Mayo Clinic researchers have developed organoid models to study uveal melanoma, one of the most common types of eye cancer in adults.

29 Jan 2025

Survey reveals shift in U.S. views on childhood vaccine requirements

With President Donald Trump having threatened school vaccine mandates for children during his campaign, a new survey finds that nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults support requiring that children be vaccinated against preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella.

29 Jan 2025

What RFK Jr. might face in his nomination hearings this week

President Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer with no formal medical or public health expertise, as secretary of Health and Human Sciences.

28 Jan 2025

Exposure to diverse news sources increases vaccine uptake

People who get their news from an ideologically diverse array of sources are more likely to get vaccinated, regardless of their political affiliation, new University of Colorado Boulder research shows.

27 Jan 2025

What a US exit from the WHO means for global health

For decades, the United States has held considerable power in determining the direction of global health policies and programs.

24 Jan 2025

Measles risk heightened by undernutrition in vulnerable children

Amid a global surge in measles cases, new research suggests that undernutrition may be exacerbating outbreaks in areas suffering from food insecurity.

16 Jan 2025

Childhood vaccination rates, a rare health bright spot in struggling states, are slipping

Jen Fisher can do only so much to keep her son safe from the types of infections that children can encounter at school. The rest, she said, is up to other students and parents in their hometown of Franklin, Tennessee.

16 Jan 2025

Blood cells linked to long-lasting vaccine immunity

When children receive their second measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, around the time they start kindergarten, they gain protection against all three viruses for all or most of their lives.

2 Jan 2025

RSV vaccine acceptance grows amidst rising flu concerns

A year after becoming available, vaccines to protect against RSV in newborns and older adults are being more widely accepted by the American public, according to a new Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) health survey conducted in November 2024.

23 Dec 2024

Whooping cough cases on the rise, but public awareness of the disease still persists

Following a several-year lull during the pandemic, cases of whooping cough are increasing across the United States.

17 Dec 2024

Widening childhood vaccination inequality in England raises concerns

Inequalities in childhood vaccination are widening in England, with uptake rates of five key vaccines consistently lower in young children living in areas of higher deprivation from 2019 to 2023, finds a study published by The BMJ today.

11 Dec 2024

How measles, whooping cough, and worse could roar back on RFK Jr.’s watch

The availability of safe, effective covid vaccines less than a year into the pandemic marked a high point in the 300-year history of vaccination, seemingly heralding an age of protection against infectious diseases.

6 Dec 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Public health and the dairy cow in the room

Public health, one of the more misunderstood concepts in the health world, is about the health of entire populations, rather than individuals.

26 Nov 2024

Measles outbreaks increase worldwide with inadequate immunization coverage

Worldwide, there were an estimated 10.3 million cases of measles in 2023, a 20% increase from 2022, according to new estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Inadequate immunization coverage globally is driving the surge in cases.

14 Nov 2024

Scientists fear what’s next for public health if RFK Jr. is allowed to ‘go wild’

Many scientists at the federal health agencies await the second Donald Trump administration with dread as well as uncertainty over how the president-elect will reconcile starkly different philosophies among the leaders of his team.

14 Nov 2024

Maternal antibodies may hinder malaria vaccine effectiveness in infants

Maternal antibodies passed across the placenta can interfere with the response to the malaria vaccine, which would explain its lower efficacy in infants under five months of age, according to research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), in collaboration with seven African centers (CISM-Mozambique, IHI-Tanzania, CRUN-Burkina Faso, KHRC-Ghana, NNIMR-Ghana, CERMEL-Gabon, KEMRI-Kenya).

23 Oct 2024

Happening in Springfield: New immigrants offer economic promise, health system challenges

When Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance claimed Haitian immigrants had caused infectious-disease rates to "skyrocket" in Springfield, Ohio, local health commissioner Chris Cook checked the records.

10 Oct 2024

FAU researchers highlight new vaccination barriers

Vaccines to prevent common and serious infectious diseases have had a greater impact on improving human health than any other medical advance of the 20th century, surpassing even sanitation and potable water. From the global eradication of smallpox in 1980 to the unprecedented development of effective and safe mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, vaccinations have played crucial roles in preventing millions of premature deaths and hospitalizations in adults and children.

8 Oct 2024