Health officials on high alert after world’s most infectious disease is detected in New York City

Two cases of measles have been reported in New York City, officials have warned.  

The Manhattan borough president, Mark Levine, said on Monday that two cases of measles have been identified in the Lower East Side and SoHo areas of Manhattan. 

No details have been released on the patients, and it’s unclear if they were NYC residents or traveled from abroad. 

Levine said the New York City Department of Health is ‘reaching out to people who may have been exposed to encourage testing.’ 

These bring NYC’s measles cases for 2025 to 13, just under 2024’s total of 14. 

Levine said the overall risk to New Yorkers is low, as the city has one of the country’s highest measles vaccination rates.

According to federal data, 98 percent of kindergarteners in NYC have had both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is 97 percent effective against the disease. And about 93 percent of two-year-olds have gotten their first dose. 

However, he warned there are still ‘pockets of resistance’ in the city, mainly among religious groups like the Orthodox Jewish community.  

The cases come amid a nationwide measles outbreak that has totaled 1,454 cases across 42 states so far in 2025.

The majority (803) of cases have been in Texas, while California has reported 20. 

Three people, including one in Colorado and two children in Texas, have died this year from the virus. 

It’s the largest outbreak since 2,126 cases were reported in 1992, according to CDC data. 

Levine warned on X that the measles cases in New York City come as health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has called for restrictions on childhood vaccines like the MMR shot and called for research investigating a long-debunked theory that the MMR causes autism. 

RFK has also relayed mixed messages about the MMR vaccine, saying at once that it is the most effective way to prevent measles, while also telling Congress that he believes that the increased risk of autism in children is in part due to a wide array of childhood immunizations recommended now compared to when he was a child. 

Levine wrote: ‘This news comes amidst concerted effort by RFK to undermine confidence in the MMR vaccine. 

‘Thankfully—for now—the measles vax rate in NYC remains high, giving us herd immunity. (93 percent of two-year-olds are vax’d). But pockets of resistance remain even here. 

‘The recent cases should serve as a reminder to all parents to make sure their kids are vax’d.’

The US has reported more than 1,400 measles cases in 2025, the highest tally since the disease was declared ‘eliminated’ in 2000

The above CDC map shows MMR vaccination rates among kindergarteners in each state

Measles is an infectious, preventable disease caused by a virus that leads to flu-like symptoms, a rash that starts on the face and spreads downward across the body, and, in severe cases, pneumonia, seizures, brain inflammation, permanent brain damage, and death.

The virus is spread through direct contact with infectious droplets or through the air. 

Patients with a measles infection are contagious from four days before the rash through four days after the rash appears.

People who are not vaccinated have a 90 percent chance of getting sick if they are exposed, even from sharing the same air, briefly or hours later, with someone who has measles. Three in 1,000 people who contract measles will die.

Deaths typically occur from acute encephalitis, or brain swelling, when the virus travels to the central nervous system, or pneumonia if it migrates to the lungs. 

Mark Levine, Manhattan borough president, wrote on X: ‘The recent cases [of measles] should serve as a reminder to all parents to make sure their kids are vax’d’

Levine called out Robert F Kennedy Jr (pictured here) for an effort ‘to undermine confidence in the MMR vaccine’ 

Before the current two-dose childhood vaccine’s approval in 1968, there were up to 500 US deaths each year from measles, 48,000 hospitalizations and 1,000 cases of brain swelling. 

Roughly three million to four million people were infected every year.

The first dose of the MMR is given to children at 12 to 15 months, and the second is available to children between the ages of four and six years. 

A vaccination rate of 95 percent is needed to achieve herd immunity, which New York City has. The MMR vaccination rate for New York State is 97 percent. 

But nationwide, only 92.5 percent of kindergarteners have gotten both doses of the shot, posing a threat to herd immunity. 

Levine said: ‘The best place to go for your child’s MMR is their pediatrician.’

He also urged parents whose children do not have a doctor to contact NYC’s public hospital system at 844-NYC-4NYC.