Infectious disease

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Child dies of horrifying measles complication in Los Angeles

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A child in Los Angeles has died of a measles-related brain disorder stemming from an infection in infancy, the Los Angeles County health department reported Thursday.

Specifically, the child died of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare but always fatal complication that strikes years after an initial measles infection. The health department’s announcement offered few details about the child, including the child’s age, but said that the child had contracted the virus before they were old enough to be vaccinated against measles. The first of two recommended doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is given between 12 and 15 months.

“This case is a painful reminder of how dangerous measles can be, especially for our most vulnerable community members,” Muntu Davis, a Los Angeles County health officer, said in a statement. “Infants too young to be vaccinated rely on all of us to help protect them through community immunity. Vaccination is not just about protecting yourself—it’s about protecting your family, your neighbors, and especially children who are too young to be vaccinated.”

SSPE is caused by a persistent measles infection in the central nervous system. Children infected with the virus may go through the standard disease progression—flu-like symptoms, high fever, the telltale rash—and then appear to fully recover. But, for a small few, the virus remains, and SSPE emerges years later, often seven to 10 years after the initial infection.

The Los Angeles health department noted that SSPE generally affects about 1 in 10,000 people with measles, but the risk may be much higher—about 1 in 600—for those who get measles as infants, such as the child who recently died.

With widespread vaccination, which led to measles being declared eliminated from the US in 2000, SSPE has virtually disappeared in the US. However, with vaccination rates slipping and anti-vaccine misinformation and views gripping the country, health experts fear seeing more of these devastating cases. Already, the US measles case count for the year is at a 33-year high, and two other children, as well as an adult, died from the acute infection this year.

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Two men fell gravely ill last year; their infections link to deaths in the ’80s

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Doctors soon discovered they were infected with the rare soil bacterium, which causes a disease called melioidosis.

Dangerous infection

Generally, melioidosis can be difficult to diagnose and tricky to treat, as it is naturally resistant to some antibiotics. It can infect people if they breathe it in or get it into open cuts. Sometimes the infection can stay localized, like a lung infection or a skin ulcer. But it can also get into the blood and become a systemic infection, spreading to various organs, including the brain. Fatality rates can be as high as 90 percent in people who are not treated but fall to less than 40 percent in people who receive prompt, proper care.

Both men in 2024 were quickly hospitalized and diagnosed with sepsis. Both were treated with heavy antibiotic regimens and recovered, though patient 2 relapsed in November, requiring another hospital stay. He ultimately recovered again.

According to the CDC, about a dozen melioidosis cases are identified each year in the US on average, but most occur in people who have traveled to areas known to harbor the bacterium. Neither of the men infected last year had recently traveled to any such places. So the researchers turned to genetic sequencing, which revealed the link to two cases in the 1980s.

In those cases, both men died from the infection. The man dubbed Patient 3 died in October of 1989. He was a veteran who fought in Vietnam—where the bacterium is endemic—two decades prior to his infection. The researchers note that such a long latency period for a B. pseudomallei infection is not entirely out of the question, but it would be rare to have such a large gap between an exposure and an infection. More suspiciously, the researchers note that in the month prior to Patient 3’s death, Hurricane Hugo made landfall in Georgia as a Category 4 storm, dumping three to five inches of rain.

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Tapeworm in fox poop that will slowly destroy your organs is on the rise

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No matter how bad things might seem, at least you haven’t accidentally eaten fox poop and developed an insidious tapeworm infection that masquerades as a cancerous liver tumor while it slowly destroys your organs and eventually kills you—or, you probably haven’t done that.

What’s more, according to a newly published study in Emerging Infectious Diseases, even if you have somehow feasted on fox feces and acquired this nightmare parasite, it’s looking less likely that doctors will need to hack out chunks of your organs to try to stop it.

That’s the good news from the new study. The bad news is that, while this infection is fairly rare, it appears to be increasing. And, if you do get it, you might have a shorter lifespan than the uninfected and may be sicker in general.

Meet the fox tapeworm

The new study is a retrospective one, in which a group of doctors in Switzerland examined medical records of 334 patients who developed the disease alveolar echinococcosis (AE) over a 50-year span (1973–2022). AE is an understudied, life-threatening infection caused by the fox tapeworm, Echinococcus multilocularis. The parasite is not common, but can be found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, particularly regions of China and Russia, and countries in continental Europe and North America.

In the parasite’s intended lifecycle, adult intestinal worms release eggs into the feces of their primary host—foxes, or sometimes coyotes, dogs, or other canids. The eggs then get ingested by an intermediate host, such as voles. There, eggs develop into a spherical embryo with six hooks that pierce through the intestinal wall to migrate to the animal’s organs, primarily the liver. Once nestled into an organ, the parasites develop into multi-chambered, thin-walled cysts—a proliferative life stage that lasts indefinitely. As more cysts develop, the mass looks and acts like cancer, forming necrotic cavities and sometimes metastasizing to other organs, such as the lungs and brain. The parasite remains in these cancerous-like masses, waiting for a fox to eat the cyst-riddled organs of its host. Back in a fox, the worms attach to the intestines and grow into adults.

Tapeworm in fox poop that will slowly destroy your organs is on the rise Read More »

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Holy water brimming with cholera compels illness cluster in Europe

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“As the infectious dose of V. cholerae O1 has been estimated to be 105–108 [100,000 to 100 million] colony-forming units (CFU), this suggests the holy water was heavily contaminated and bacteria remained viable at ambient temperature during the flight and in Europe,” the German and UK researchers who authored the report wrote.

Global plague

Testing indicated that the cholera strain that the travelers brought home was a particularly nasty one. V. cholerae O1, which is linked to other recent outbreaks in Eastern and Middle Africa, is resistant to a wide variety of antibiotics, namely: fluroquinolones, trimethoprim, chloramphenicol, aminoglycosides, beta-lactams, macrolides, and sulphonamides. The strain also carried a separate genetic element (a plasmid) that provided resistance mechanisms against streptomycin and spectinomycin, cephalosporins, macrolides, and sulphonamides.

The main treatment for cholera, which causes profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, is oral rehydration. Antibiotics are sometimes used to reduce severity. Fortunately, this strain was still susceptible to the antibiotic tetracycline, one of the drugs of choice for cholera. However, there are reports of other cholera strains in Africa that have also acquired tetracycline resistance.

In all, “The extension of a cholera outbreak in Africa causing a cluster of infections in Europe is unusual,” the authors write. They call for travelers to be aware of infectious threats when eating and drinking abroad—and to not ingest holy water. Clinicians should also be aware of the potential of cholera in travelers to Ethiopia.

To truly fight cholera outbreaks, though, there needs to be sustained investment in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Cases of cholera have surged globally after the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.

“Low-income countries will continue to need overseas development aid support to control outbreaks and epidemics using effective WASH, surveillance, communications, diagnostics and countermeasure programmatic delivery,” the authors of the Eurosurveillance report write.

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Measles quickly spreading in Kansas counties with alarmingly low vaccination

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The cases in Kansas are likely part of the mushrooming outbreak that began in West Texas in late January. On March 13, Kansas reported a single measles case, the first the state had seen since 2018. The nine cases reported last week had ties to that original case.

Spreading infections and misinformation

On Wednesday, KDHE Communications Director Jill Bronaugh told Ars Technica over email that the department has found a genetic link between the first Kansas case and the cases in West Texas, which has similarly spread swiftly in under-vaccinated communities and also spilled over to New Mexico and Oklahoma.

“While genetic sequencing of the first Kansas case reported is consistent with an epidemiological link to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the source of exposure is still unknown,” Bronaugh told Ars.

Bronaugh added that KDHE, along with local health departments, is continuing to work to track down people who may have been exposed to measles in affected counties.

In Texas, meanwhile, the latest outbreak count has hit 327 across 15 counties, mostly children and almost entirely unvaccinated. Forty cases have been hospitalized, and one death has been reported—a 6-year-old unvaccinated girl who had no underlying health conditions.

On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that as measles continues to spread, parents have continued to eschew vaccines and instead embraced “alternative” treatments, including vitamin A, which has been touted by anti-vaccine advocate and current US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Vitamin A accumulates in the body and can be toxic with large doses or extended use. Texas doctors told the Times that they’ve now treated a handful of unvaccinated children who had been given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage.

“I had a patient that was only sick a couple of days, four or five days, but had been taking it for like three weeks,” one doctor told the Times.

In New Mexico, cases are up to 43, with two hospitalizations and one death in an unvaccinated adult who did not seek medical care. In Oklahoma, officials have identified nine cases, with no hospitalizations or deaths so far.

Measles quickly spreading in Kansas counties with alarmingly low vaccination Read More »

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Measles arrives in Kansas, spreads quickly in undervaccinated counties

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On Thursday, the county on the northern border of Stevens, Grant County, also reported three confirmed cases, which were also linked to the first case in Stevens. Grant County is in a much better position to handle the outbreak than its neighbors; its one school district, Ulysses, reported 100 percent vaccination coverage for kindergartners in the 2023–2024 school year.

Outbreak risk

So far, details about the fast-rising cases are scant. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has not published another press release about the cases since March 13. Ars Technica reached out to KDHE for more information but did not hear back before this story’s publication.

The outlet KWCH 12 News out of Wichita published a story Thursday, when there were just six cases reported in just Grant and Stevens Counties, saying that all six were in unvaccinated people and that no one had been hospitalized. On Friday, KWCH updated the story to note that the case count had increased to 10 and that the health department now considers the situation an outbreak.

Measles is an extremely infectious virus that can linger in airspace and on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person has been in an area. Among unvaccinated people exposed to the virus, 90 percent will become infected.

Vaccination rates have slipped nationwide, creating pockets that have lost herd immunity and are vulnerable to fast-spreading, difficult-to-stop outbreaks. In the past, strong vaccination rates prevented such spread, and in 2000, the virus was declared eliminated, meaning there was no continuous spread of the virus over a 12-month period. Experts now fear that the US will lose its elimination status, meaning measles will once again be considered endemic to the country.

So far this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has documented 378 measles cases as of Thursday, March 20. That figure is already out of date.

On Friday, the Texas health department reported 309 cases in its ongoing outbreak. Forty people have been hospitalized, and one unvaccinated child with no underlying medical conditions has died. The outbreak has spilled over to New Mexico and Oklahoma. In New Mexico, officials reported Friday that the case count has risen to 42 cases, with two hospitalizations and one death in an unvaccinated adult. In Oklahoma, the case count stands at four.

Measles arrives in Kansas, spreads quickly in undervaccinated counties Read More »

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US measles outlook is so bad health experts call for updating vaccine guidance

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With measles declared eliminated from the US in 2000 and national herd immunity strong, health experts have recommended that American children get two doses of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine—the first between the ages of 12 and 15 months and the second between the ages of 4 and 6 years, before they start school.

Before 12 months, vulnerable infants in the US have been protected in part by maternal antibodies early in infancy as well as the immunity of the people surrounding them. But if they travel to a place where population immunity is unreliable, experts recommend that infants ages 6 to 11 months get an early dose—then follow it up with the standard two doses at the standard times, bringing the total to three doses.

The reason they would need three—and the reason experts typically recommend waiting until 12 months—is because the maternal antibodies infants carry can interfere with the vaccine response, preventing the immune system from mounting long-lasting protection. Still, the early dose provides boosted protection in that 6-to-11-month interval.

In the past, this early, extra dose was recommended for infants traveling internationally—to countries that hadn’t achieved America’s enviable level of herd immunity and were vulnerable to outbreaks. But now, with US vaccination rates slipping, herd immunity becoming spotty, cases rising by the day, and outbreaks simmering in multiple states, the US is no longer different from far-off places that struggle with the extremely infectious virus.

In an article published today in JAMA, prominent health experts—including former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky—call for the US to update its MMR recommendations to include the early, extra dose for infants who are not only traveling abroad, but domestically, to any areas where measles is a concern.

“With some local immunization levels inadequate to avert outbreaks and ongoing disease spread in various regions of the country, a dichotomy between domestic and international travel is not appropriate,” the experts write. “For many travel itineraries, there may even be a higher risk of measles exposure at the US point of departure than at the international destinations.”

Vaccinating at-risk infants early is critical to their own health—as well as the people around them, the experts note. “[I]nfants younger than one year face a heightened risk of severe measles-related complications such as pneumonia, encephalitis, and death. Younger infants are also at increased risk of developing subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare measles complication that has a high fatality rate and may surface years after initial infection,” according to the experts.

US measles outlook is so bad health experts call for updating vaccine guidance Read More »

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US measles cases reach 5-year high; 15 states report cases, Texas outbreak grows

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The US has now recorded over 300 measles cases just three months into 2025, exceeding the yearly case counts for all years after 2019. The bulk of this year’s cases are from an outbreak that erupted in an undervaccinated county in West Texas in late January, which has since spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma.

As of the afternoon of March 14, Texas reports 259 cases across 11 counties, 34 hospitalizations, and one death, which occurred in an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl. New Mexico reports 35 cases across two counties, two hospitalizations, and one death. That death occurred in an unvaccinated adult who did not seek medical treatment and tested positive for the virus posthumously. The cause of death is still under investigation. Oklahoma reports two probable cases linked to the outbreak.

In addition to Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, 12 other states have reported at least one confirmed measles case since the start of the year: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year has seen three measles outbreaks, defined as three or more related cases.

As of March 13, the CDC reported 301 confirmed cases, which do not include 36 new cases reported today in Texas and two in New Mexico.

“Measles is back”

Since 2000, when health officials victoriously declared measles eliminated from the US thanks to concerted vaccination campaigns, only three other years have had higher tallies of measles cases. In 2014, the country saw 667 measles cases. In 2018, there were 381 cases. And in 2019—when the country was on the verge of losing its elimination status—there was a startling 1,274 cases, largely driven by massive outbreaks in New York. Measles is considered eliminated if there is no continuous spread in the country over the course of at least 12 months. (This is not to be confused with “eradication,” which is defined as “permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence” of an infectious disease. Smallpox and rinderpest are the only pathogens humans have eradicated.)

US measles cases reach 5-year high; 15 states report cases, Texas outbreak grows Read More »

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Texas measles outbreak spills into third state as cases reach 258

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Texas and New Mexico

Meanwhile, the Texas health department on Tuesday provided an outbreak update, raising the case count to 223, up 25 from the 198 Texas cases reported Friday. Of the Texas cases, 29 have been hospitalized and one has died—a 6-year-old girl from Gaines County, the outbreak’s epicenter. The girl was unvaccinated and had no known underlying health conditions.

The outbreak continues to be primarily in unvaccinated children. Of the 223 cases, 76 are in ages 0 to 4, and 98 are between ages 5 and 17. Of the cases, 80 are unvaccinated, 138 lack vaccination status, and five are known to have received at least one dose of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine.

One dose of MMR is estimated to be 93 percent effective against measles, and two doses offer 98 percent protection. It’s not unexpected to see a small number of breakthrough cases in large, localized outbreaks.

Across the border from Gaines County in Texas sits Lea County, where New Mexico officials have now documented 32 cases, with an additional case reported in neighboring Eddy County, bringing the state’s current total to 33. Of those cases, one person has been hospitalized and one person (not hospitalized) died. The death was an adult who did not seek medical care and tested positive for measles only after death. The cause of their death is under investigation.

Of New Mexico’s 33 cases, 27 were unvaccinated and five did not have a vaccination status, and one had received at least one MMR dose. Eighteen of the 33 cases are in adults, 13 are ages 0 to 17, and two cases have no confirmed age.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a travel alert over the measles outbreak. “With spring and summer travel season approaching in the United States, CDC emphasizes the important role that clinicians and public health officials play in preventing the spread of measles,” the agency said in the alert. It advised clinicians to be vigilant in identifying potential measles cases.

The agency stressed the importance of vaccination, putting in bold: “Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination remains the most important tool for preventing measles,” while saying that “all US residents should be up to date on their MMR vaccinations.”

US health secretary and long-time anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, meanwhile, has been emphasizing cod liver oil, which does not prevent measles, and falsely blaming the outbreak on poor nutrition.

Texas measles outbreak spills into third state as cases reach 258 Read More »

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Measles outbreak hits 208 cases as federal response goes off the rails

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Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that stays in the body. Taking too much over longer periods can cause vomiting, headache, fatigue, joint and bone pain, blurry vision, and skin and hair problems. Further, it can lead to dangerously high pressure inside the skull that pushes on the brain, as well as liver damage, confusion, coma, and other problems, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Nevertheless, in an interview with Fox News this week, Kennedy endorsed an unconventional regimen of a steroid, an antibiotic and cod liver oil, praising two Texas doctors for giving it to patients. One of the doctors Kennedy championed was disciplined by the state medical board in 2003 for “unusual use of risk-filled medications,” according to a report by CNN.

In a yet more worrying sign, Reuters reported Friday afternoon that the CDC is planning to conduct a large study on whether the MMR vaccine is linked to autism. This taxpayer-funded effort would occur despite the fact that decades of research and numerous high-quality studies have already been conducted—and they have consistently disproven or found no connection between the vaccine and autism.

The agency’s move is exactly what Democratic senators feared when Kennedy was confirmed as the country’s top health official. In Senate hearings, Kennedy refused to say that vaccines do not cause autism. Democratic senators quickly warned that his anti-vaccine stance could not only move the country backward in the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases, but also hold back autism research aimed at finding the real cause(s) as well as better treatments.

“When you continue to sow doubt about settled science it makes it impossible for us to move forward,” Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said in a Senate hearing. “It’s the relitigating and rehashing … it freezes us in place.”

Measles outbreak hits 208 cases as federal response goes off the rails Read More »

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Texas official warns against “measles parties” as outbreak keeps growing

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Cook, along with Lubbock’s director of public health, Katherine Wells, said they see no end in sight for the outbreak, which now spans nine counties in Texas, many of which have low vaccination rates. “This outbreak is going to continue to grow,” Wells said, declining to forecast how high the final case count could go after a reporter raised the possibility of several hundred.

So far, 116 of the 146 cases are under the age of 18, with 46 being between the ages of 0 and 4. Only five of the 146 were vaccinated with at least one dose of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Messaging

On a more positive note, Wells reported that the outbreak has seemed to sway some vaccine-hesitant parents to get their children vaccinated. Just yesterday in Lubbock, over 50 children came into the city’s clinic for measles vaccines. Eleven of those children had vaccine exemptions, meaning their parents had previously gone through the state process to exempt their child from having to receive routine childhood vaccines to attend school. “Which is a really good sign; that means our message is getting out there,” Wells said.

So far in the outbreak, which erupted in late January, messaging about the disease and the importance of vaccination has exclusively come from state and local authorities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only released a brief statement late Thursday, which was not sent through the agency’s press distribution list. It did, however, note that “vaccination remains the best defense against measles infection.”

During a cabinet meeting Wednesday, US Health Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to a question about the outbreak, offering a variety of inaccurate information. Kennedy downplayed the outbreak, falsely claiming that “it’s not unusual.” But, this is an unusual year for measles in the US. As epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina noted on Bluesky, the number of US measles cases this year has already surpassed the total case counts from eight of the previous 15 years. And it is only February.

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Texas measles outbreak reaches 90 cases; 9 cases in New Mexico

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Other affected counties in Texas include Dawson (6 cases); Ector (1); Lubbock (1); Lynn (1); Terry (20); and Yoakum (4).

In Texas, the majority of the cases continue to be in children: 26 are in infants and young children ages 0 to 4, and 51 are between ages 5 and 17. All but five cases have been in unvaccinated people. Sixteen people (roughly 18 percent) have been hospitalized.

In New Mexico, there have been no hospitalizations, and five of the nine cases are in adults. The other four cases were between the ages of 5 and 17.

Given low vaccination rate in the area and the contagiousness of measles, health officials expect the outbreak to continue to grow. Measles is one of the most infectious viruses known; 90 percent of people who are unvaccinated and exposed will fall ill. The disease is marked by high fevers and a telltale rash and can cause severe complications in some, including younger children.

In the US, about 20 percent of people with measles are typically hospitalized. Five percent develop pneumonia, and up to 3 in 1,000 die of the infection. In rare cases, measles can cause a fatal disease of the central nervous system later in life called Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Measles also wipes out immune responses to other infections (a phenomenon known as immune amnesia), making people vulnerable to various illnesses.

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