KANSAS CITY - Kansas health officials confirmed five new cases of measles Wednesday in an outbreak in the southwest corner of the state that's linked to Texas and New Mexico.
The new cases brings the total in the Kansas outbreak to 37, including one hospitalization. Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray and Morton counties have fewer than five cases each. Haskell County has the most with eight cases, Stevens County has seven, Kiowa County has six.
The state's first reported case, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks based on genetic testing, a state health department spokesperson said. But health officials have not determined how the person was exposed.
Nationally, U.S. measles cases topped 700 last week as Indiana joined five others states with active outbreaks. Even as the virus continued to spread and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention redeployed a team to West Texas, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in a televised Cabinet meeting Thursday that measles cases were plateauing nationally. The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024.
Texas is reporting the majority of measles cases. Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses near the epicenter of the outbreak in rural West Texas. An adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated also died of a measles-related illness.
Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio.
Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.
The multistate 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 has said cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.