Headline

Two Dead, Nearly 230 Sickened In US Measles Outbreak

Published

3 months ago

March 8, 2025

A measles outbreak in the southwestern United States has killed two people and infected more than 200, prompting a top health agency to issue a travel warning.

As of Friday, Texas had reported 198 cases and New Mexico 30, bringing the total to 228. Each state confirmed one death, and both were unvaccinated.

The Texas patient was a child while the New Mexico patient was an adult who tested positive for measles after death.

Although the official cause of the adult’s death has not been released by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified it as a measles-related fatality.

“More cases are expected as this outbreak continues to expand rapidly,” the CDC warned in a Health Alert Network advisory to healthcare workers, public health officials, and potential travellers.

“With spring and summer travel season approaching in the United States, CDC emphasizes the important role that clinicians and public health officials play in preventing the spread of measles,” the agency said.

“They should be vigilant for cases of febrile rash illness that meet the measles case definition and share effective measles prevention strategies, including vaccination guidance for international travellers.”

Measles is highly contagious, spreading through respiratory droplets and lingering in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. The disease causes fever, respiratory symptoms, and a rash — but can also lead to severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation, and death.

Vaccination remains the best protection. The measles vaccine, required for children 12 months and older, confers 93 per cent lifetime immunity after one dose, rising to 97 per cent after two.

But immunization rates have been declining in the US, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic fueled a surge in vaccine misinformation.

The CDC recommends a 95 per cent vaccination rate for herd immunity, but nationwide coverage among kindergartners had slumped to 92.7 per cent by 2023-2024.

Religious exemptions are on the rise and the epicentre of the outbreak is a west Texas county with a large Mennonite religious community that has historically shown vaccine hesitancy.

Current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent decades falsely linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism — a claim thoroughly debunked by scientific research.

Since the outbreak expanded, he has softened his stance, recommending vaccination while simultaneously promoting treatments such as vitamin A and steroids.

While these treatments are medically valid, experts warn that emphasizing them may divert attention from the urgent need to boost immunization rates.

Before this outbreak, the last US measles-related death was in 2015, when a Washington state woman died from virus-induced pneumonia while on immunosuppressive medication. The previous fatality was in 2003.

AFP

Headline

Thousands Protest In Tehran Against Israel

Published

33 minutes ago

June 20, 2025

Editor

Thousands of people joined a protest against Israel in the Iranian capital on Friday after weekly prayers, chanting slogans in support of their leaders, images on state television showed.

“This is the Friday of the Iranian nation’s solidarity and resistance across the country,” the news anchor said.

Footage showed protesters in Tehran holding up photographs of commanders killed since the start of the war with Israel, while others waved the flags of Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

“I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, a reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to state television, protests took place in other cities around the country, including in Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Shiraz in the south.

AFP

Headline

Over 650 Die In Iran After First Week Of Israeli Strikes

Published

35 minutes ago

June 20, 2025

Editor

More than 650 people have been killed in Iran following a massive Israeli bombing campaign launched a week ago, an activist group said on Friday.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that 657 people have died and 2,037 have been injured in the nationwide airstrikes.

The Iranian government does not publish daily figures on casualties.

HRANA relies on a broad network of informants and publicly available sources.

The group said the dead include at least 263 civilians and 164 members of the military.

Another 230 fatalities remain unidentified.

The network also reported damage to civilian infrastructure, including a projectile striking a children’s hospital in Tehran, which did not result in any injuries.

In the western province of Ilam, a fire station was damaged, HRANA said, while an Israeli attack on a car factory in western Iran triggered a large fire.

Israel maintains its objective is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, which it considers an existential threat.

Headline

UK Joins Other Nations In Pulling Embassy Staff From Iran

Published

46 minutes ago

June 20, 2025

Editor

Britain on Friday withdrew its embassy staff from Iran, following in the footsteps of other European nations as well as Australia and New Zealand amid the conflict with Israel.

“Due to the current security situation, we have taken the precautionary measure to temporarily withdraw our UK staff from Iran,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Our embassy continues to operate remotely,” it added.

On the eighth day of the war between Iran and Israel, the British ministry said it continued to call for de-escalation between the two sides.

But the statement added: “We take the protection of our staff and British nationals extremely seriously and we have long advised against all travel to Iran.”

Earlier Friday, Australia also shuttered its Tehran embassy and ordered officials to leave the country, Sydney said, citing a “deteriorating security situation”.

Both countries join a string of nations closing diplomatic missions in Iran since Israel launched air strikes a week ago, claiming its arch enemy was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

Australia has directed all its officials and their dependents to leave Iran, and suspended its Tehran embassy operations, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told a news conference in Adelaide.

“This is not a decision taken lightly. It is a decision based on the deteriorating security environment in Iran,” she said.

Wong said there were about 2,000 Australians and family members registered in Iran who wanted to depart, and another 1,200 in Israel.

Other nations that have suspended Tehran embassy operations include Bulgaria, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Portugal, and Switzerland.

Switzerland said it was temporarily closing its diplomatic mission in the Iranian capital, but would continue to fulfil is role in representing US interests in Iran.

“In view of the intensity of military operations in Iran and the highly unstable situation on the ground, the FDFA has decided to temporarily close the Swiss embassy in Tehran,” the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said.

European powers meanwhile met with Iranian officials in Geneva on Friday, and hoped to offer “a diplomatic solution”, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution”, while agreeing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon”.

AFP