Children in Texas are poisoned after taking RFK Jr-backed supplements for measles… as cases reach new peak
Several children in a Texas town at the center of a measles outbreak have been hospitalized after taking an unproven treatment touted by Robert F Kennedy Junior.
Doctors have reported a handful of unvaccinated children in West Texas were treated for liver damage in the past two months thought to be linked to vitamin A poisoning.
RFK Jr, a long-time vaccine skeptic, has strongly endorsed vitamin A as a treatment for measles despite the evidence being mixed.
Some studies have shown that supplementation can reduce the risk of compilations and death in malnourished children with severely low levels of vitamin A, which is found in several foods including eggs, dairy, and cod liver oil.
However, other research has shown little benefit in children with adequate vitamin A levels, which is the case for most youngsters in the US.
The risk of overdosing comes from the fact high levels of vitamin A put significant stress on liver cells, potentially causing inflammation, cell death, and scarring.
Over 400 cases of measles have been identified in West Texas communities, where vaccination rates range from 30 to 60 percent, since January.
Forty-one patients have been hospitalized and at least one has died.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has endorsed high doses of vitamin A supplements as a safe and effective treatment for measles despite years of scientific research failing to prove this.
RFK Jr recently directed the CDC to alter its guidance about treating measles.
There is no antiviral for measles but, according to the latest from the agency, ‘Supportive care, including vitamin A administration under the direction of a physician, may be appropriate.’
Kennedy also touted a study in an op-ed published by Fox News that ‘studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality.’
He only tepidly supported vaccines which are 97 percent effective at stopping measles infection and almost 100 percent effective at preventing death.
Children hospitalized with liver damage were also given the supplement without being monitored by a doctor, according to CNN. This is generally discouraged.
Repeated dosing increases the odds of liver damage, people taking it may not know of a pre-existing liver problem, and not every patient will benefit because not every patient becomes severely deficient in the vitamin.
According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases: ‘When measles does occur, vitamin A can be an effective treatment when appropriately administered by a healthcare professional.’
The children hospitalized in Texas are believed to have taken super doses above 50,000 IUs.
This dose or higher can lead to acute toxicity, causing jaundice, acute abdominal pain, seizures, and coma because too much vitamin A overloads the liver, causing poisoning.
Hospitalized children all showed abnormal liver function on routine lab tests due to parents giving them high doses of vitamin A. They were all unvaccinated
The general recommendation is to not exceed 2,333 to 3,000 IUs per day.
Severe measles can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis (brain swelling), blindness, and, in rare cases, death.
About one in five unvaccinated people who get measles will be hospitalized, and around three out of every 1,000 children, primarily unvaccinated children, who become infected will die, according to the CDC.
Measles has since appeared in a variety of other states, including Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.
Public health officials in those states haven’t reported a rise in vitamin A as an alternative measles treatment, even though about 12 states have vaccination rates below the 95 percent herd immunity threshold—increasing the likelihood of people turning to unproven remedies.
The NIH and World Health Organization state that a dose of vitamin A for two days is effective in children with measles ‘living in areas where vitamin A deficiency may be present.’
However, vitamin A deficiency in the US is rare, affecting less than an estimated one percent of the population.
In the meta-analysis cited by RFK in his op-ed, scientists drew from studies that compared outcomes in both unvaccinated and vaccinated children with measles who had been treated with vitamin A.
Measles cases surged in early 2025 after a quiet 2023-24, peaking at 88 weekly cases in February 2025 before declining to 23 by late March, according to surveillance data
While vitamin A helped reduce measles deaths by about 62 percent, vaccinated children faired far better than the unvaccinated ones.
No deaths occurred in groups of vaccinated subjects who received vitamin A in that meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
By comparison, there were 14 deaths total in the groups that received vitamin A but were unvaccinated. They also had a higher rate of complications, such as brain swelling and pneumonia.
An NIH-funded report that pooled data from seven studies, seven studies funded by the NIH found that vitamin A was only effective in severe cases of measles.
The subjects came from under-developed countries where vitamin deficiencies are more widespread, and vaccination rates hover between 40 and 70 percent, including South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, and Ghana.
A third study published in the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics concluded that 200,000 IU of vitamin A repeated for two days ‘should be used for the treatment of measles as recommended by WHO in children admitted to hospitals in areas where the case fatality is high,’ which is not the case in the US nor is it standard protocol.
The standard two-dose MMR vaccine is overwhelmingly safe and 97 percent effective at preventing the infection. Deaths in vaccinated children nationwide are near zero.
But rates of anti-vaccine parents requesting that their children be exempt from standard vaccinations to attend school, which includes the measles vaccine, are rising.
Cold-like symptoms, such as a fever, cough and a runny or blocked nose, are usually the first signal of measles
‘State laws allowing both religious and philosophical exemptions and laws permitting scalable exemptions were associated with decreased MMR,’ the NIH says.
During the 2023-24 school year, routine childhood vaccination coverage for American kindergarteners in both public and private schools dropped below 93 percent, continuing a downward trend from 95 percent in 2019-20 and 93 percent in 2022-23.
Meanwhile, vaccine exemptions climbed to an all-time high of 3.3 percent, up from 3.0 percent the previous year and 2.6 percent before the pandemic.
‘State laws allowing both religious and philosophical exemptions and laws permitting scalable exemptions were associated with decreased MMR,’ the NIH says.
During the 2023-24 school year, routine childhood vaccination coverage for American kindergarteners in both public and private schools dropped below 93 percent, continuing a downward trend from 95 percent in 2019-20 and 93 percent in 2022-23.
Meanwhile, vaccine exemptions climbed to an all-time high of 3.3 percent, up from 3.0 percent the previous year and 2.6 percent before the pandemic.
