Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
2 Louisiana Babies Die Of Pertussis As Cases Spike, Vaccination Rates Drop
Just weeks after two state surgeons general said they will no longer promote vaccinations, state officials announced that two Louisiana children have died of pertussis, or whooping cough—a vaccine-preventable disease—in the past 6 months, CNN reported yesterday. The news comes as Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, MD, confirmed 110 pertussis cases in Louisiana as of last week, compared with 154 for all of 2024. (Wappes, 4/3)
On the spread of measles —
An adult infected with measles traveled through Newark International Airport while infectious, New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) officials said yesterday. The person, who is not a resident of New Jersey, potentially exposed fellow travelers at Newark and other places in Bergen County in the last week of March. (Soucheray, 4/3)
Tiny Tots U Learning Academy on University Avenue confirmed its first case of measles in a child they take care of on March 24; since then, it had grown to several confirmed cases. The measles cases were being found in unvaccinated children and some who had received the first dose of the MMR vaccine. (Powers, 4/3)
Katherine Wells was tapping her phone. It was the last week of January, and the director for the Lubbock Health Department had a jam-packed schedule. She was working with her team to put in place the new community health plan. Flu cases were on the rise. She had media interviews lined up to talk about stopping the spread. She refreshed her email again. And there it was — confirmation that someone in nearby Gaines County had tested positive for measles. It was the first for the region in 20 years. (Carver, 4/3)
Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico reported new measles cases this week, with the outbreak expanding for the first time into central Texas. Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. ... The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said last week that cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak. (Shastri, 4/3)
As the United States faces one of its worst measles outbreaks in decades, a new analysis finds that nearly a third of young children who were eligible to be vaccinated against the disease did not get their first shot on schedule. (McPhillips and Mukherjee, 4/3)
