Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Unvaccinated New Mexico Resident Infected With Measles Has Died
An unvaccinated person who died in New Mexico has tested positive for measles, state health officials said on Thursday, possibly the second such fatality in a growing outbreak that began in West Texas. The officials have not yet confirmed that measles was the cause of death, and said the person did not seek medical treatment before dying. (Rosenbluth, 3/6)
As a deadly measles outbreak spread across Texas, the nation鈥檚 top health official took to Instagram on Sunday to blast out a message to his nearly 5 million followers. 鈥淎fternoon mountaineering above Coachella Valley,鈥 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in a caption alongside photos of himself hiking in California. The post quickly ricocheted around the department, dismaying officials working overtime to track and contain the highly contagious disease. (Cancryn, Gardner and Cirruzzo, 3/6)
Gaines County is a vast, flat expanse far in the west of Texas: more than 1,500 square miles of sparsely populated farmland. And right now, this is the epicenter of a measles outbreak the likes of which this state hasn鈥檛 seen in more than 30 years. Many here say the virus has spread quickly among the Mennonites, a tight-knit Anabaptist community that works much of this land. (Watt, 3/6)
On bird flu 鈥
Federal health agencies oppose the use of bird flu vaccines in poultry right now, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, weighing in publicly on it for the first time in his new role. The Trump administration has been considering poultry vaccination as it seeks to combat the outbreak that is fueling a record surge in egg prices. (Tin, 3/6)
The H5N1 bird flu strain has infected humans and other animals in every continent except Australia, and scientists say it could serve as a model for other countries. (Falconer, 3/4)
Pigs are moderately susceptible to infection with a bovine-derived H5N1 avian influenza virus but don't spread it to other pigs, a non鈥損eer-reviewed聽study published on the preprint server bioRxiv suggests. The investigators inoculated nine 4-week-old Yorkshire piglets through the trachea, nose, and mouth with the H5N1 B3.13 virus grown on bovine uterine surface cells. Three other uninfected piglets housed in the same pen served as sentinels. (Van Beusekom, 3/6)
