Montana, which hadn’t seen measles cases in 35 years, is the ninth state to experience a 2025 outbreak.
Gallatin City-County Health Department officials said five confirmed cases involving children and adults had been reported by Thursday. Those infected “were exposed to measles while traveling outside of Montana” and were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccine status.
The GCCHD said it was working to detect possible exposures to those individuals and is “contacting the people who may have been exposed.”
The U.S. saw 800 measle cases going into the weekend with nearly 600 of those exposures reported in Texas. A pair of unvaccinated children died in the Lone Star State, where measles were first detected in late January.
An unvaccinated adult died from measles in New Mexico in March. Also experiencing active outbreaks are Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Centers for Disease Control said 96% of the nation’s confirmed cases of measles in 2025 occurred in people who were not vaccinated or whose vaccination status wasn’t know. The CDC recorded 285 cases of measles in 2024.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a hero in the antivaxer community during the COVID-19 pandemic — urged Americans to get inoculated against measles in March.
“Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote in a Fox News opinion piece. The outlet‘s coverage on vaccines and viruses frequently drew heavy criticism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New York State Department of Health said three unrelated cases of measles have been confirmed in New York City, with one more reported in the state. The National Institutes of Health says three or more related cases constitute an outbreak.
With News Wire Services
