Measles are spreading rapidly in the US states of New York and Pennsylvania. In New York, a state of emergency has even been declared after more than one hundred people were infected this week.
Because of the state of emergency, aid workers can intervene more quickly and are allowed, for example, to test and distribute vaccines faster.
In Pennsylvania, the number of registered measles cases this year has passed the thousand mark. It is thus one of the largest outbreaks since the early 1990s. Nearly two hundred patients have been hospitalized and five people have died.
Health experts link such outbreaks to the declining vaccination rate in the US. Large outbreaks have also been reported since early last year in other states, such as Texas, Utah, and South Carolina.
What is measles?
Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by a virus. A measles infection usually proceeds mildly, but serious complications can occur and the patient can die from it. WHO figures show that in 2024 approximately 95,000 people worldwide died from measles, mainly children under 5 years old.
Measles can be recognized by a sudden high fever, red eyes, coughing, cold symptoms, and red spots on the skin that often feel rough. In the Netherlands, over five hundred people contracted measles last year, mainly children in primary schools where few pupils were vaccinated. In the Netherlands, there is a vaccine against measles, the MMR vaccine.
Besides Pennsylvania and New York, Ohio is also dealing with a serious measles outbreak: more than 200 infections have already been confirmed there this year. Like in Pennsylvania, some of the hardest-hit areas in Ohio are home to strict Christian Amish communities, where the vaccination rate is generally lower.
According to the US health institute CDC, the US is experiencing the worst nationwide measles outbreak since 1991, with nearly 4,000 cases in total. About twenty percent of these are children under five years old.
In the past two years, eight people have died from complications related to measles. That is more deaths than in the previous thirty years combined.
Deaths
In February 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed Minister of Health in the Trump administration. For years, he was one of the loudest vaccine critics in the US. Shortly after his appointment, he dismissed all experts from the vaccine advisory committee and partly replaced them with vaccine skeptics.
After multiple deaths from measles, he somewhat softened his positions on the disease. For example, he stated that the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the spread of the disease.
But meanwhile, the consequences of his criticism are already becoming apparent. The vaccination rate has now fallen below the 95 percent needed to contain the spread of measles. As a result, infection numbers are rapidly increasing in several states.
In November, international health officials will meet to determine whether the US and Mexico have lost their status as measles-free countries. A country must have no cases of the disease for twelve months to be declared measles-free.
Disinformation about vaccines and problems with access to healthcare also lead some parents to not vaccinate themselves or their children.
Salmonella
Besides measles outbreaks, the US is also struggling with a number of foodborne illnesses. This year, nearly 13,000 Americans suffered from diarrhea and other stomach and abdominal complaints due to eating lettuce contaminated with an intestinal parasite. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has traced the contamination back to a Mexican farm.
American media report that food products in the US are increasingly being recalled due to contamination by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. This concerns, among others, eggs, chicken, or meat. According to various media, this development is caused by budget cuts and staff departures at the FDA and the US Department of Agriculture, putting food inspections under pressure.
The US health service CDC is currently investigating 33 outbreaks of food-related illnesses, including salmonella, E. coli, and listeria.