Health
Measles in the U.S.: Latest Maps and Cases
Measles continues to spread in West Texas and New Mexico, with more than 250 people infected — many unvaccinated school-age children. Two cases in Oklahoma, for which state officials have not provided a location, have also been linked to these outbreaks. Eleven other states have reported isolated measles cases, typically linked to international travel.
● Isolated cases ● Outbreaks
Measles cases by county in 2025
The Texas outbreak began in late January, when local health officials reported two cases in Gaines County, a rural agricultural area on the western edge of the state.
The outbreak quickly escalated. Measles has spread into neighboring counties and infected at least 223 people as of Tuesday, including 29 people who have been hospitalized and an unvaccinated young child who died, the first such death in the United States in a decade.
New Mexico also declared an outbreak in Lea County, which borders Gaines County. While the cases in New Mexico have not officially been connected to the Texas outbreak, officials have said they are “undoubtedly related.”
Measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico
Last week, an unvaccinated resident of Lea County who tested positive for the virus died, though officials have not yet confirmed that measles was the cause of death.
In both states, most measles cases have spread among people who are unvaccinated or with unknown vaccine status.
For years, Gaines County has had low childhood vaccination rates, largely because of the area’s large Mennonite community. While there is no religious doctrine that explicitly forbids vaccines, the insular Christian group has historically avoided interacting with the health care system and has a long tradition of using home remedies and supplements.
Roughly 82 percent of the kindergarten students in the county had received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination, or M.M.R., last year, which is far below the 95 percent coverage needed to prevent outbreaks in a community.
Texas public schools require children to have received certain vaccines, including the M.M.R. shot, but parents can apply for an exemption for “reasons of conscience,” including religious beliefs. Last year, Gaines County had one of the highest exemption rates in the state.
Vaccination rates can vary widely by school district. The Loop Independent School District in Gaines County is a small district with one school and the lowest rate of measles vaccination in the affected Texas counties. Only 46 percent of kindergarten students had received their M.M.R. vaccine in the 2023 school year, down from 82 percent in 2019.
By county, for public school districts and private schools, since 2019
Change in measles vaccination rates in affected Texas counties
In Lea County, N.M., the M.M.R. vaccination rate for children and teens is relatively high, at about 94 percent. But the rate among adults is much lower: 63 percent have received one shot of M.M.R., and only 55 percent have received both shots, according to local health officials, though they noted that there may be vaccinated adults whose records have not been added to the system. Adults make up more than half of reported cases in New Mexico.
Measles is one of the most contagious known infections. In a hypothetical community where nobody had immunity from the virus and each infected person infected 18 others, a small outbreak would quickly grow out of control:
Every vaccinated person would help slow the spread of the virus and limit the outbreak:
For the outbreak to end quickly, each infected person would need to infect fewer than one other person, on average. In this example, 17 of 18 people would need to be vaccinated — more than 94 percent of the community:
And while measles symptoms often resolve on their own within a few weeks, the virus can be extremely dangerous in rare cases. It may cause pneumonia, making it difficult for children to get oxygen into their lungs.
The infection can also lead to brain swelling, which can cause lasting damage, including blindness, deafness and intellectual disabilities. For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus also causes “immune amnesia,” making the body unable to defend itself against illnesses it has already been exposed to and leaving patients more susceptible to future infections.
Once someone is infected with the virus, doctors have little control over how serious a measles infection becomes — there is no antiviral for measles to stop its spread in the body, only “supportive care” to help manage symptoms. That’s why experts recommend that people get two doses of the M.M.R. vaccine, which are 97 percent effective at preventing infection.
Measles was officially declared eliminated — which means the virus is not continually spreading — in 2000, in large part because of aggressive vaccination campaigns. Experts now fear that status may be at risk, as childhood vaccination rates have been falling nationally.
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Feeling lonely may take a toll on older adults’ memory — but it may not speed up cognitive decline, according to a new study.
Researchers from Colombia, Spain and Sweden analyzed data from more than 10,000 adults ages 65 to 94 across 12 European countries and found those who reported higher levels of loneliness did worse on memory tests at the start of the study, according to research published this month in the journal Aging & Mental Health.
Over a seven-year period, however, memory decline occurred at a similar rate regardless of how lonely participants felt.
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“The finding that loneliness significantly impacted memory, but not the speed of decline in memory over time was a surprising outcome,” lead author Dr. Luis Carlos Venegas-Sanabria of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Universidad del Rosario said in a statement.
Loneliness may be linked to memory performance in older adults, a new study suggests. (iStock)
“It suggests that loneliness may play a more prominent role in the initial state of memory than in its progressive decline,” Venegas-Sanabria said, adding that the findings highlight the importance of addressing loneliness as a factor in cognitive performance.
The findings add to debate about whether loneliness contributes to dementia risk. While loneliness and social isolation are often considered risk factors for cognitive decline, research results have been mixed.
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The study looked at data from the long-running Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which tracked 10,217 older adults between 2012 and 2019. Participants were asked to recall words immediately and after a delay to measure memory performance.
Social isolation and loneliness could play a surprising role in cognitive health among seniors. (iStock)
Loneliness was assessed using three questions about how often participants felt isolated, left out or lacking companionship.
About 8% of participants reported high levels of loneliness at the outset. That group tended to be older, more likely to be female and more likely to have conditions such as depression.
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Researchers found that those with higher loneliness had lower scores on both immediate and delayed memory tests at baseline. Still, all groups — regardless of loneliness level — experienced similar declines in memory over time.
The results suggest loneliness may not directly accelerate the progression of memory loss, though it remains linked to poorer cognitive performance overall.
Researchers look at a brain scan at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Experts warn, however, that the findings should not be interpreted to mean loneliness is harmless.
“The finding that lonely older adults start with worse memory but don’t decline faster is actually the most interesting part of the paper, and I think it’s easy to misread,” said Jordan Weiss, Ph.D., a scientific advisor and aging expert at Assisted Living Magazine and a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
“It likely means loneliness does its damage earlier in life, well before people show up in a study like this at 65-plus,” Weiss told Fox News Digital.
By older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold, an aging expert says. (iStock)
He suggested that by older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold.
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“By the time you’re measuring someone in their late 60s, decades of social connection patterns are already baked in,” he said.
Weiss, who was not involved in the research, added that loneliness may coincide with other health conditions, and noted that participants who felt more isolated also had higher rates of depression, high-blood pressure and diabetes. The link, he said, may reflect a cluster of health risks rather than a direct cause.
“While they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia,” a psychotherapist says. (iStock)
Amy Morin, a Florida-based psychotherapist and author, said the findings reflect a broader pattern in research on loneliness and brain health, and that the relationship may be more complex than it appears.
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“The evidence shows there’s a link between loneliness and cognitive decline but there’s no direct evidence of a cause and effect relationship,” she said. “So while they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia.”
Morin added that loneliness, which can fluctuate, may not be the root of the problem, but rather a symptom of other underlying mental or physical health issues.
Researchers suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging. (iStock)
She said staying socially and mentally engaged is crucial for overall brain health.
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“It’s important to be proactive about social activities,” Morin said. “Joining a book club, having coffee with a friend, or attending faith-based services can be a powerful way to maintain connections in older age.”
The researchers also suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for comment.
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Research continues to uncover new details on how fasting may help extend life.
A new study published in the journal Nature Communications investigated how intermittent fasting can boost longevity in small worms often used in aging research.
Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas compared worms that were fed normally to those that underwent a 24-hour fast in early adulthood and were then fed again, according to a press release.
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The scientists measured a variety of factors, including stored fat, gene activity related to fat metabolism and lifespan.
The results showed that the life-boosting benefit did not depend on the fasting itself but on the body’s behavior after eating again.
Experts say sustainability is key when choosing a long-term weight-loss strategy. (iStock)
Study lead Peter Douglas, associate professor of molecular biology and a member of the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine at UT Southwestern, suggested that these discoveries “shift the focus toward a neglected side of the metabolic coin – the re-feeding phase.”
“Our data suggest that the health-promoting effects of intermittent fasting are not merely a product of the fast itself, but are dependent on how the metabolic machinery recalibrates during the subsequent transition back to a fed state,” he said.
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“Our findings bridge a gap between lipid metabolism and aging research,” he added. “By targeting aging, the single greatest risk factor for human disease, we move beyond treating isolated conditions toward a preventive model of medicine that enhances quality of life for all individuals.”
Lauri Wright, director of nutrition programs at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, called this a “high-quality” study that adds an “important nuance to how we think about fasting and longevity.”
Intermittent fasting typically involves limiting meals to an eight-hour daily window or fasting every other day. (iStock)
The benefits of the refeeding phase after fasting were “especially interesting,” Wright, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“The researchers showed that longevity was linked to the body’s ability to turn off fat breakdown after fasting, allowing cells to restore energy balance,” she reiterated.
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“From a scientific standpoint, that’s a meaningful shift because it suggests fasting is not just about burning fat, but about metabolic flexibility.”
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Fasting may support longevity through triggering metabolic switching, enhancing cellular repair and stress resistance and improving markers like insulin sensitivity, research shows.
Limitations and cautions
Although this study provides “important insight” on the power of refeeding, Wright noted that the findings should be approached with caution, as the study was done on worms and cannot always be translated to humans.
“Additionally, it explains how a process might work in a controlled lab condition rather than real-world eating behaviors,” she added as a limitation. “Finally, the study is short-term and doesn’t give us the long-term translation on lifespan outcomes.”
The review found intermittent fasting was barely more effective than doing nothing, according to the study authors. (iStock)
Wright cautioned that fasting is “not a magic solution for longevity, and how you eat overall matters more than when you eat.”
“I advise, first and foremost, to focus on diet quality, including a variety of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and minimally processed foods,” she said.
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For those who are considering fasting, it’s better to stick with a moderate plan — like a 12- to 14-hour overnight fast — rather than going to extremes, Wright said. After fasting, she recommends focusing on well-balanced meals.
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Several groups of people should be cautioned against fasting, according to Wright, including those with diabetes who are on insulin or hypoglycemic medications, those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, anyone with a history of eating disorders and older adults at risk of malnutrition.
Anyone considering intermittent fasting should consult with a doctor before starting.
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