New York City officials urge vaccination after two measles cases confirmed

Two cases of measles have been confirmed in New York City so far this year, according to the New York City health department.

Officials have not disclosed the ages or vaccination status of the two cases, but they are urging parents to vaccinate their children. The first case was reported earlier this year, but the cases are reportedly unrelated.

Anyone who has not received an immunization should get a vaccine and should also make sure children receive the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccines, the health department advises.

“As a pediatrician and the state’s doctor, I want to remind everyone that immunization is safe and the best protection for your children against measles and other potentially deadly diseases,” said Dr James McDonald, the state health commissioner, in a press release.

The news comes just after New Jersey had three confirmed measles cases in Bergen county and issued an alert in response.

In 2024, 14 cases were reported in the city by the New York City health department.

Measles, a highly contagious respiratory illness, was officially declared eliminated in the US in 2000. Yet cases have been on the rise in recent years. The re-emergence of preventable illnesses comes at a time when misinformation about vaccines is rampant, and rates of vaccinations are declining in the US.

There have been 164 cases across the US as of 27 February, spreading across Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island and Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty percent of those cases have resulted in hospitalization.

Texas saw the biggest outbreak so far with 146 cases, and last week the state reported the first measles death in the US since 2015. The school-aged child who died was not vaccinated, the Texas department of state health services said.

Following the outbreak, US health secretary and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr backtracked on his previous comments last week downplaying the cases.

Though he had initially referred to the US measles outbreak as “not unusual”, he appeared to recognize the seriousness by saying that “ending the measles outbreak is a top priority for me”, in an X post.