Hot Topics in IPC on March 13, 2025: Measles and Sudan Ebola Virus Outbreak Updates

Saskia v. Popescu presents Hot Topics in Infection Prevention

Measles Outbreak Update

The Texas measles outbreak has been picking up steam, with 28 new cases reported in the last 5 days. The outbreak surged from 6 cases on February 6 to 223 as of March 11.For reference in all of 2024, the US reported 285 cases, according to the CDC.

Los Angeles County has just reported a new case in a resident of the county, who traveled through Los Angeles on March 5,2025. According to County of Los Angeles Public Health (LADPH), “Passengers assigned to specific seats [who] may have been exposed on China Airlines flight CAL8/CI8 that arrived in Los Angeles on March 5 will be notified by local health departments.”

In addition to the case in Los Angeles, Philadelphia reported possible measles exposure from a case where someone was exposed while abroad (meaning it was unrelated to the outbreak in Texas). Similarly, New York also reported a case in Suffolk County in a child under 5, but it was unrelated to the ongoing outbreak.

Additionally, the Maryland Department of Health shared that Howard County reported a case related to international travel, in which potential exposures include Washington Dulles Airport and Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center’s Pediatric Emergency Department.

Ultimately, between the cases in Texas and those bubbling outside of, but not related to, the outbreak, there is an increasing need for vaccination. Efforts have been made to increase testing and vaccine distribution, but now more than ever, science communication and education is necessary.

Personally, I’ve responded to several measles outbreaks and exposures as an infection preventionist, and they were exceedingly time-consuming, frustrating, and resource-intensive…things that we have even less bandwidth for after a severe influenza season and post-COVID burnout. Here are a couple of articles worth reading: one on the family who lost their daughter to measles and US response.

Sudan Virus Disease Outbreak Update

Uganda has been responding to an Ebola outbreak (the Sudan strain, which we refer to as SVD) since late January 2025, but more information has been shared regarding a second cluster. The first cluster was identified on January 30, 2025, with 14 cases and 4 deaths (2 confirmed and 2 probable. Since then, the World Health Organization [WHO] released an update on the new cluster (3 confirmed and 2 probable)—all of which are related to a pediatric case identified on February 25^, 2025.

Per the WHO’s update, “On 1 March 2025, the Ministry of Health released a press statement about the confirmation of a new case. The case was an under 5-year-old child identified at the Mulago Hospital where the patient presented with signs and symptoms meeting the suspect case definition. A laboratory sample was collected, and the child was confirmed with SVD on 26 February by PCR. Following investigations, [2] probable deaths linked to this case have been reported. This includes the child’s mother, who was pregnant at the time of symptom onset on 22 January and died on 6 February. Her newborn child died on 12 February. The [3] deaths did not have a supervised burial. On 3 March, an 11^th case was confirmed, an adult female, contact of case 10, and on 4 March, a 12^th case was confirmed, an adult female, contact of the probable case (the mother of case 10). Both of these cases are currently admitted to treatment facilities.”

Key takeaways? An ongoing outbreak, unsupervised burials, and an increasing need to support global health response.

Additional Articles of Interest

• A new systematic review of 2 antibiotic-resistant Salmonella species in Pakistan was published, underscoring the region's worrisome speed of antimicrobial resistance.
• Global health funding and key programs—cuts leave us all at risk. Craig Spencer, MD, MPH, shares his thoughts on what politicization of global health response means for efforts abroad and domestic health security.