864 - The Measles Outbreak in Texas and Beyond
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.8 • 620 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
A measles outbreak that started in west Texas has sickened more than 150 people and killed a child. In today’s episode: the scope of the outbreak and how it’s spreading, the challenges of trying to control it, and claims about treatments including vitamin A, steroids, and antibiotics.
Guest:
Dr. Bill Moss is the executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Host:
Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Show links and related content:
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Measles Outbreak Updates—Texas Department of State Health Services
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Measles Outbreaks in the U.S. Highlight the Importance of Vaccination—Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
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As Measles Spreads, Kennedy Embraces Remedies Like Cod Liver Oil—The New York Times
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The Story of Dean Sommer and Vitamin A—Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.9 | Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith Rogers. |
| 0:34.8 | Today, the devastating and unchecked measles outbreak in Texas. |
| 0:39.9 | Dr. Bill Moss returns to the podcast to talk about the scope of this outbreak and what we know |
| 0:44.8 | right now about how it's spreading, where, and why. We also talk about some misleading claims |
| 0:50.4 | around treating measles disease with vitamin A, steroids, and antibiotics, and what |
| 0:55.7 | individuals can do to protect themselves, including people who aren't sure if they have |
| 1:01.2 | immunity. Let's listen. Dr. Bill Moss, welcome back again to public health on call. We're talking |
| 1:07.4 | today about the measles outbreak in the southwest United States. |
| 1:11.2 | Can you tell us what we know right now? |
| 1:13.0 | Yes, and great to be with you again, Lindsay. |
| 1:15.8 | So what we know about the outbreak in Texas is, you know, the state of Texas has been really good about posting on their website, the information about the cases. |
| 1:26.8 | They last reported their cases on March 4th, |
| 1:31.1 | Tuesday, March 4th. They reported 159 cases this year in 2025. Most of those cases, |
| 1:39.1 | 107 of those cases, are from a single county, Gaines County, and the number of cases has been |
| 1:45.9 | increasing. And so with an increase of about 13 cases within the past week, unfortunately, 14% |
| 1:54.7 | or 22 of those cases have been hospitalized. And as many people know, there was one death |
| 1:59.8 | in an unvaccinated school age child, which is really |
| 2:03.7 | tragic because that's a very easily preventable death. And that child had no underlying condition. |
... |
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