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Experts recommend vaccines as the best defense against the viral illness.
March 6, 2025, 6:45 p.m. ET
Experts are emphasizing the importance of vaccination against measles after two people in New York and three in New Jersey were diagnosed with the viral illness since the start of the year.
It’s not unusual for sporadic cases of measles to be reported. Last year, 14 people in New York City were diagnosed with the illness, with an additional case elsewhere in New York State.
But an unfolding outbreak of the disease in West Texas and New Mexico has cast a spotlight on measles, which is highly contagious and can prove deadly and is sometimes heralded by a rash. That outbreak has emerged at the same time that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who advocates unconventional treatments, has become President Trump’s secretary of health and human services.
With measles so much in the news, residents of New York and New Jersey might be feeling concerned. Here’s what to know about the cases in the region.
Should I be concerned about the local cases?
Neither of the two patients in New York State, both of whom live in New York City, had been vaccinated against measles — one was an infant and too young to be immunized — and the cases are not related, according to the city’s health department. The first case was reported in January, and the second in February. Both patients have recovered.
In New Jersey, all three people with confirmed cases of measles this year were not vaccinated against the virus. A person from Bergen County who had traveled internationally was the first of the three patients to be diagnosed, on Feb. 14, according to the state’s health department. Two people who had been in close contact with the first patient were diagnosed nearly a week later and were quarantined to minimize the chances of spreading the virus.
