Measle Cases Within Three Months of 2025 Surpass The Total Cases of 2024

It has already been three months into 2025, and the United States has surpassed the total number of measles cases in the country from the toll of last year.

The high number of cases is driven by a multistate outbreak that has reached nearly 300 cases. As of Friday, Texas has reported 259 cases, while New Mexico reported 35 and Oklahoma reported 2. In 2024, the total number was 285, while already in three months of 2025, the last year's total toll has been surpassed.

In 2000, measles was eradicated from the United States, however. the cases were still there, with around 179 cases reported each year. The average is about 8 outbreaks per year, to 25 annually.

Recently, in the US, a second person was reported dead due to the outbreak. This was the case in New Mexico. The person was unvaccinated.

This comes after the news of the death of an unvaccinated child in nearby Texas, which was the first US death from the disease since 2015.

Measles was initially considered "eliminated" in the US in 2000, however is spreading quickly in Texas, with the state identifying 198 cases as of Friday. Nearly 30 more since the state's last report on Tuesday. It is the same span, the number of cases are increasing in New Mexico, as there too, the cases have tripled to 30.

The disease has not been contained, in fact has been reported across other states, including Canada.

Measles Is Highly Infectious

Before the invention of vaccination, which helped eliminate the disease in the US, almost everyone in childhood got measles. Not only that, but, 400 to 500 children had also died from the same each year. However, it was the vaccination that was able to beat the measles outbreak. The concern now is the drop in vaccination rates, which could beat back the elimination of the disease from the United States.

How Does It Spread?

Scientists use a concept called reproduction manner or the R naught to see who quickly a disease spreads. This is also the number of people, on average, that a single infected person can transmit a disease to.

For measles, the R naught is 12 to 18, which is higher than with other infectious disease. However, it is still a theoretical number and like Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health says, "It is not some magical constant."

This concept assumes that no one has immunity to a given disease, this is what the "naught" refers to, which means zero. It helps scientists compare the infectious potential of different diseases, however, the concept may differ depending on various factors, including how easily measles of any other disease transmits and alters the process.

Then comes the concept of effective reproduction number. This is the number of people that a sick person can infect in a given population at any specific time. This changes as more people become immune through infection or vaccination. This also changes based on how people react or behave towards a new infectious disease? Do the isolate? Do they cluster together and socialize? These scenarios can then give an opportunity for the virus to exist. Thus this concept depends on how the community reacts to deal with the virus.