Up until this year, Dr. Leila Myrick had never encountered a measles case.
She doesn’t recall her medical school professors discussing the virus. When she came across images of the distinct red rash on practice exams, she went back to her textbooks to identify it.
“Most doctors practicing today won’t see it in real life,” she stated.
However, in recent months, Dr. Myrick, a family medicine physician in Seminole, Texas, has treated roughly 20 measles patients. She will likely encounter more cases as a severe outbreak has infected 481 individuals in Texas and resulted in one child’s death. In Texas, New Mexico, and various areas in the nation where cases have been reported, healthcare professionals such as Dr. Myrick are facing the highly transmissible virus for the first time. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted 607 confirmed measles cases in the U.S. this year — over double the total cases seen throughout 2024.
“The current generation of physicians primarily treating patients have mostly not witnessed a real measles case outside of textbooks or videos,” commented Dr. Andy Lubell, the chief medical officer at True North Pediatrics in Pennsylvania, where a physician identified its first measles case just this March.
The United States declared measles eradicated in 2000. Nonetheless, cases continue to emerge nationwide every year, occasionally leading to more extensive outbreaks. Public health authorities are concerned that this year, measles could become increasingly prevalent in various regions. The virus is quickly spreading in some areas, and vaccination rates across the country have been decreasing for years.
“I remember studying measles, German measles, and other infections,” stated Dr. Seth Coombs, a physician at the Lovington Medical Clinic in New Mexico who experienced his first measles case this year. “But they are rarely encountered. Therefore, as with anything, if you don’t use the knowledge, it fades away.”
Measles can be challenging to pinpoint at first, particularly if a physician doesn’t consider it. The illness produces a noticeable red rash, but this can take days to show. Prior to that, an individual with measles might exhibit merely a fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes — symptoms that are similar to many other viral illnesses.
