ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Thousands of people were fired from the Department of Health and Human Services today. That affects medical research, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those CDC cuts could affect the response to the measles outbreak that started in west Texas. Texas Public Radio's David Martin Davies is here to explain. Hi there.
DAVID MARTIN DAVIES, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: How could these CDC cuts affect efforts to address the measles outbreak in Texas?
DAVIES: Well, for an outbreak to come to an end, there should be three things - contact tracing, testing and immunizations. The concern is that all of these will be reduced and the virus will continue to spread. Today, there was an update on the number of confirmed cases of measles in west Texas. It's grown to 422. Almost every person infected was unvaccinated. I spoke with Terri Burke, president of the Texas nonprofit The Immunization Project (ph). She said state health service funds are being lost, including for vaccination programs and for testing in the measles outbreak.
TERRI BURKE: It's in the hundreds of millions of dollars. So the impact on the measles outbreak would seem to be substantive.
DAVIES: The Texas health officials released a statement saying the cancellation of the CDC grants has not impacted the state's response to the measles outbreak.
SHAPIRO: Seems contradictory there. So what happens when vaccination and testing programs are cut?
DAVIES: Well, we know the answer to that because this has happened before in the 1980s. The result was a national measles outbreak in 1989, with 123 deaths across the country. Dr. Adam Ratner is warning of a repeat. He's a pediatrician and the author of the new book, "Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons Of Measles And The Uncertain Future Of Children's Health."
ADAM RATNER: What's happening in Texas now is a choice. The idea that we have had a child die from measles in the United States in 2025 is insane.
DAVIES: Ratner said the nation should be investing more in public health at this time and not less.
SHAPIRO: There's also a new concern with this outbreak where some children are being given toxic levels of vitamin A by their parents. Explain what's happening there.
DAVIES: Yeah, vitamin A. Last week, the hospital in Lubbock, the Covenant House, confirmed to me that children with measles complications are being admitted for treatment, and they are also having to be treated for overdoses of vitamin A, and that's caused liver problems for those children. Vitamin A in small doses is used as supportive care in measles outbreaks. Here's what Dr. David Higgins said about it. He's a practicing pediatrician and researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
DAVID HIGGINS: We know that if somebody is deficient in vitamin A, that can lead to worse outcomes. And it's for that reason that the World Health Organization, they recommend vitamin A supplementation for children with measles.
DAVIES: Misinformation has been spreading online that vitamin A can prevent measles, which it can't. It may be related to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of spreading medical misinformation about vaccines. He's been enthusiastically promoting the use of vitamin A to treat measles. He's even appeared on Fox News touting its benefits. But overuse of vitamin A does have those serious consequences. And again - I need to emphasize - the only thing that can prevent measles is that vaccine.
SHAPIRO: That's David Martin Davies of Texas Public Radio. Thank you.
DAVIES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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