The CDC on Friday shared another weekly update on measles outbreaks across the U.S., as the national total now stands at 935. CIDRAP has the news.
Twelve outbreaks are currently ongoing throughout the country; “93% of illnesses” are connected to those outbreaks. HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also asking the CDC to “develop new guidance for treating measles with drugs and vitamins,” as he pushes alternative treatments including “vitamin A, antibiotics, and inhaled steroids.”
Vitamin A treatments that Kennedy has supported have “put some kids in the hospital after they were given toxic amounts of the vitamin.” The CDC wrote that vitamin A “doesn’t prevent measles and isn’t a substitute for vaccination but has been shown to reduce measles mortality in children living in areas with high levels of vitamin A deficiency,” which is “very low” in the U.S. to begin with. Overuse of vitamin A can lead to “toxicity and cause damage to the liver, bones, central nervous system, and skin.” The CDC also wrote that there is “no evidence for using antibiotics to treat measles, which is a viral disease.”
Meanwhile, Texas’s total case number has been lifted to 683. Of those cases, “396 are from the Gaines County hot spot. Of the state’s total, 653 patients were unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. So far, 89 people have been hospitalized since the start of the outbreak, and the number of deaths remains at 2.”
HPN has previously reported on the measles outbreaks in the U.S.
Matt MacKenzie | Associate Editor
Matt is Associate Editor for Healthcare Purchasing News.
