Measles outbreaks on the horizon if US cuts funding, WHO director says
WHO Director says the progress measles vaccines have made to save millions of lives is now in jeopardy if U.S. pulls funding.
Measles cases in the U.S. have topped 300 in 2025 as more outbreaks happen across the U.S., with Texas continuing to battle the largest number of cases.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday that 301 cases of measles have been confirmed across 15 states since January, with 93% of cases being directly outbreak-associated. Two people, an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl in Texas and an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico, have died.
The number marks a grim milestone; there were a total of 285 confirmed measles cases across 33 states in all of 2024, according to the CDC. Just two and a half months into 2025, that number has been well surpassed and continues to grow.
In total, 75% of cases were in children and teenagers aged 19 or under and 95% were in unvaccinated people or people with unknown vaccine status. Only 2% of cases occurred in people who were fully immunized with two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.
More states report measles cases as outbreaks grow in Texas, New Mexico
Earlier this week, two new states, Oklahoma and Vermont, reported their first cases of the disease. While the Vermont case was associated with a child in Lamoille County who contracted the virus following a trip abroad, the two Oklahoma cases were reported to the CDC as being connected to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
Texas and New Mexico continue to report the number of cases. As of Friday afternoon, 259 measles infections were reported in Texas, resulting in 34 hospitalizations. Most cases (174) in Texas were located in Gaines County and the majority (201) occurred in children under 18. All but two were in unvaccinated people.
In New Mexico, 35 cases and two hospitalizations have been confirmed, mostly in Lea County. Fifteen cases were in people under 18 and all but two were in unvaccinated people or people of unknown vaccination status.
Which states have reported measles cases in 2025?
Measles cases have been reported by 15 states so far this year as of March 14: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington. New York City recently reported its second measles case.
The CDC, which began doing weekly updates on Feb. 21, said in its Friday report that more cases are being investigated but only formally confirmed infections are included in its current data. The map below lists 316 cases across 15 states as reported by individual state health departments compared to the CDC’s 301.
What is measles and how do you get it?
Measles is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease caused by a virus that primarily, and most severely, affects children. According to the World Health Organization, it infects the respiratory tract before spreading throughout the body.
The virus is one of the most contagious infectious diseases to exist; so contagious, in fact, that 90% of unvaccinated people who are exposed end up contracting it. Additionally, one in five of those people end up hospitalized, according to the CDC.
What are the symptoms of measles?
According to the CDC, measles symptoms appear seven to 14 days after contact with the virus and typically include high fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes. Measles rash appears three to five days after the onset of the first symptoms.
Other signs and symptoms of measles include:
- Reddish-brown rash that can spread across the entire body
- When the rash appears, a person’s fever may spike to more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit
- High fever
- Cough
- Runny nose and sneezing
- Red, watery eyes
- Loss of appetite, diarrhea
- Koplik spots, tiny white spots that may appear inside the mouth two to three days after symptoms begin
- Small raised bumps may also appear on top of the flat red spots (the spots may become joined together as they spread from the head to the rest of the body)
Contributing: Natalie Neysa Alund,
