Quick takes: Measles in Texas, Marburg death, more polio cases

News brief
  • Texas reported two measles cases in unvaccinated school-age children in Gaines County. Two other cases were reported earlier this month in Harris County. The Texas Department of State Health Services said the children were hospitalized in Lubbock and have since been discharged. The four cases announced this month are the first Texas measles cases since 2023.
  • One more death has been recorded in Tanzania's Marburg outbreak, raising the death toll to 10 according to a weekly update made by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The total number of confirmed cases is 2, with 8 suspected, meaning the case-fatality rate of the outbreak is likely 100%. 
  • Three countries have new polio cases this week, including Pakistan which confirmed another wild poliovirus type 1 case, the first patient with symptom onset in 2025. Ethiopia and Niger have new vaccine-derived cases, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Ethiopia has 10 new cases, and Niger has a single case.  In those countries, the cases occurred in late 2024, raising the annual total in Ethiopia to 37 cases and in Niger to 16 cases. In another polio development, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) yesterday posted a risk assessment on recent wastewater polio detections in five European countries. Though no human cases have occurred, the ECDC said  public health authorities should reinforce routine childhood vaccination programs to achieve and maintain at least 90% coverage.

Avian flu strikes more poultry farms, prompts more state measures and warnings

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US poultry farms saw no let-up in H5N1 avian flu detections over the past 2 days, with more outbreaks reported from eight states, according to the latest confirmations from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

turkey barn
ene / iStock

In California, outbreaks hit two more commercial duck farms, one in Madera County and the other in Merced County, affecting about 157,000 birds.

Meanwhile, four more detections were reported in hard-hit Ohio, including three turkey farms and a layer facility that has 1.4 million birds. The virus also struck a broiler farm housing nearly 146,000 birds in Delaware, turkey farms in Missouri and North Carolina, a layer farm in Indiana, and a facility with nearly 48,000 birds in Pennsylvania.

More detections were reported in backyard flocks as well, including those in Indiana, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. Separately, Maryland’s agriculture department reported a preliminary positive in a backyard flock in Montgomery County, which is part of the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

In dairy cow developments, APHIS confirmed one more detection, another from California, raising the national total to 951 and the state’s total to 734.

West Virginia suspends poultry exhibits, Massachusetts issues alert

In other developments, ongoing detections in wild birds and poultry have prompted more actions and warnings in affected states. The West Virginia Department of Agriculture yesterday announced a suspension of all poultry exhibitions due to the ongoing avian flu threat and recent confirmations at commercial farms in surrounding states.

Massachusetts officials this week warned the public about suspected avian flu deaths in wild and domestic birds in several of the state’s cities, which suggest the virus is widespread in the state. It urged people to avoid handling wildlife, including sick and dead birds, and it encouraged the public to report sick and dead bird observations if groups of five or more are found to state officials through an online portal.

Iowa reports 2 cases of CWD in wild deer in Fremont, Pottawattamie counties

News brief
Close-up of deer
Jeff Bryant / Flickr cc

Two cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) have been confirmed in southwestern Iowa, KMALand radio reports.

One of the hunter-harvested deer was found in Fremont County, about 2.5 miles west of Percival, near the Missouri River. The other was taken northwest of Avoca in Pottawattamie County, north of Freemont County, near the border with Nebraska.

The Fremont county deer was located more than 8 miles from a positive case identified in 2021, while the Pottawattamie County deer was found roughly 6.5 miles from a positive case detected near Walnut in Shelby County, northeast of Pottawattamie County.

"Basically, the DNR will try to do a lot more surveillance—so the deer that are already being harvested with the tags that are out there, we'll try to sample more of those," DNR Wildlife Biologist Matt Dollison told the radio station late last week. "Our quotas will go up and maybe expand in some areas, but we'll really just do more to try and figure out what the prevalence of the disease is in that area."

51 cases identified in recent hunting season

Since its first positive CWD test in 2013, Iowa has confirmed 438 cases out of 105,898 wild deer sampled, according to the DNR website. During the 2024-2025 hunting season, the DNR tested 5,459 samples, identifying 51 confirmed and 45 suspected CWD cases.

Basically, the DNR will try to do a lot more surveillance—so the deer that are already being harvested with the tags that are out there, we'll try to sample more of those.

Matt Dollison

CWD, a fatal neurodegenerative disease of cervids such as deer and elk, is caused by prions, infectious proteins that trigger abnormal folding in normal proteins, especially in the central nervous system. Infected animals shed CWD prions in body fluids, which can spread to other cervids through direct contact or the environment.

No CWD infections have been reported in people, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against the consumption of infected animals. 

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