Measles cases up, bird flu transmission worries, and a new potential coronavirus
If you’re in the “don’t tell me, I don’t want to know” camp, best to move on to another post. Otherwise, here’s this week’s epidemiology news.
Measles
The West Texas/New Mexico measles outbreak is now up to just under 100 cases with no end sight and 16 hospitalized. Most cases are kids, with a quarter of cases among kids age 4 and under; all but 5 cases were unvaccinated or vaccination status is unknown. (See article below about susceptible adults.) A DSHS spokesperson previously told ABC News that this marks the largest measles outbreak in the state in more than 30 years. The epicenter of the outbreak, Gaines County, has the highest percent of unvaccinated kids in the state. Read more here about this completely preventable outbreak of family misery, why it’s so contagious, and potential complications.
If you have been vaccinated with two doses of vaccine as per routine, you have a 95-plus percent chance of being completely protected throughout life. However, adults born after 1957 and vaccinated for measles before 1968 may need to be revaccinated. Before the first measles vaccines were developed in the 1960s, nearly everyone got the disease during childhood. So people born before 1957 are assumed to have natural immunity. Then early versions of the measles vaccine were made from an inactivated (killed) virus, which didn't work particularly well. That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone vaccinated before 1968 get at least one dose of the live attenuated vaccine. If you're not sure of your immunity or vaccination status, there's no harm in getting a shot.
Measles likely hasn’t spread more rapidly because Gaines County is rural. However, there is now a case in nearby Lubbock, a metropolitan area of over a third of a million with an airport—meaning not only greater chance of local spread, but national spread as well.
Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, gives her usual great advice on navigating vaccine conversations here, and click here for a FAQ sheet on childhood vaccines from Dr. Katelyn Jetelina.
Bird Flu
Known cases are up to 70; see a map here. Worrisome: it now appears cats that died from bird flu in two different Michigan families were infected from their owners, both of whom worked with dairy animals and showed symptoms of infection but refused to be tested themselves. Both workers also ended communication with health officials before the investigation was over, with one citing fear of losing employment for implicating dairy farms, according to the study. The NYT reports that newly-discovered case link was to have been published in January but was delayed by the Trump administration’s pause on communications from the C.D.C.
Spillover of avian influenza from cattle to cats was identified in mid-2024, but so far there has been no known transmission between humans and other mammals, which is why the Michigan cases are concerning—particularly others in the same households had some symptoms as well. As of January, the CDC has not yet seen evidence of human-to-human transmission.
The US has so far focus on culling of poultry flocks, but the USDA has conditionally approved a vaccine for poultry for a subvariant of H1N1 bird flu. However, the USDA has stopped short of allowing doses to be widely distributed. An agency spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the conditional license doesn’t mean that it has approved the vaccine for commercial use or that poultry farmers can purchase it at this time. “This is simply a normal step in the research and development phase, not in the implementation of a vaccine strategy,” the USDA spokesperson said.
A new coronavirus?
There are multiple media reports that a new COVID-like virus has been discovered in bats in China. The new virus has not yet been seen in humans, but enters cells similar to COVID-10. Hundreds of coronaviruses exist but only a few can infect humans, including SARS, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). The new virus has a higher potential to infect humans than other coronaviruses because of the way it binds to human ACE2, making it similar to SARS-CoV-2 and NL63 (a common cold virus). Stay tuned for more on this new threat.