The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is on the ground in Texas to aid the state in tamping down a measles outbreak, the agency said Tuesday.
The agency in a statement on the social platform X said it has sent some of its Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) “disease detectives” to the West Texas region, the same day the state reported an additional 13 cases, bringing the total to 159.
Twenty-two of the patients have been hospitalized and one child has died, the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade and the first death in a child in the U.S. since 2003.
The CDC’s participation means Texas officials requested federal assistance, since the agency can’t send a team without an official state ask.
The partnership, known as an Epi-Aid, is a rapid-response effort in which the Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers — the “disease detectives” — will provide local officials support for one to three weeks, the CDC said. The local authority leads the investigation while collaborating with CDC experts.
“The measles outbreak in Texas is a call to action for all of us to reaffirm our commitment to public health. By working together — parents, healthcare providers, community leaders, and government officials, we can prevent future outbreaks and protect the health of our nation,” Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.
Kennedy last week said the CDC was providing “technical assistance and vaccines” to help with the outbreak, including lab support and sending doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines.
The outbreak has largely spread within a community of Mennonites in Gaines County, who historically have had lower vaccination rates.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy initially downplayed the outbreak during a Cabinet meeting with President Trump last week, saying it was “not unusual” and falsely claiming that many people hospitalized were there “mainly for quarantine.”
He still has not openly encouraged vaccination, though in an op-ed posted on the Fox News website Sunday he urged parents to talk with their doctors “to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine” while emphasizing that the decision to get vaccinated was a “personal one.”
In a prerecorded Fox News interview Tuesday, Kennedy said HHS was shipping doses of vitamin A to Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, and was helping to arrange ambulance rides.
Kennedy did not explicitly endorse vaccinations in the interview.
He claimed doctors in the area have reported “very very good results” from treating patients with a steroid called budesonide, an antibiotic called clarithromycin and cod liver oil, which he said had high concentrations of vitamin A and vitamin D.
Vitamin A has been used for years in children in developing countries with severe measles, but doctors have said the evidence of its effectiveness is mixed. It isn’t used widely in the U.S., likely because children aren’t Vitamin A deficient.
Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases told The Hill his organization recommends the use of low doses of vitamin A in low-resourced countries with high rates of vitamin A deficiency.
There’s “no solid evidence” of the effectiveness of vitamin A in reducing measles complications in high income countries, O’Leary said, but the dosage recommended is low enough that there is no harm.
“The only effective way to prevent measles is through vaccination. That is much more important than the measles treatments being discussed,” O’Leary said in an email. “No one should take, and no one should give to their child, vitamin A in the hopes it will prevent measles.”
He added that AAP doesn’t recommend the use of cod liver oil. Clarithromycin does not treat measles and would not be a first line choice for a secondary bacterial pneumonia either. Budesonide is generally used as an inhaled steroid, and is also not a recommended treatment for measles, O’Leary said.
