Texas Health Department reports no additional measles in the state since June 3 | Today news

(Add the timeframe in paragraph 8). June 6 (Reuters) – The Texas Department of Health reported no new cases of measles on Friday, the first time the state has not recorded an increase since the outbreak in February began. The state, which is the epicenter of the current measles outbreak, has a total of 742 confirmed cases from Friday. The number of new cases still decreases, from an average of about 12 a day around the peak to less than one case per day, Chris van Deusen, director of media relations at the Texas Department of Health, told Reuters in ‘Nepos. “The fact that (we) has not had any new hospitalizations in more than two weeks yet gives us confidence that there are no large number of unreported cases that are still there,” Van Deusen said. The United States is struggling with one of the worst outbreaks of the highly contagious air infestation it has seen, with more than 1,000 reported cases and three confirmed deaths. Despite the slowdown of the infection in Texas, the country continues to take on weekly increases in measles elsewhere. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a total of 1,168 confirmed measles cases were reported by 34 jurisdictions from Thursday, an increase of 80 cases since the previous update last week. Since 2000, the only time infections was the 1000 mark in 2019, when the country reported 1,274 cases. There were 17 outbreaks, defined as three or more related cases, reported in 2025, the CDC said. Experts have called on public health officials to give urgent approval for highly effective vaccines. According to the CDC, the measles vaccine is 97% effective after two doses. (Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)