Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop new guidance for treating measles with drugs and vitamins, an HHS spokesperson said.
The move comes as Kennedy has faced criticism during this year's record measles outbreaks for remarks misleading people into thinking that measles infections are easily curable and inflating myths about measles vaccines. Vaccination is the only way to prevent the highly infectious disease that can cause serious health complications or death in some cases.
"Secretary Kennedy will be enlisting the entire agency to activate a scientific process to treat a host of diseases, including measles, with single or multiple existing drugs in combination with vitamins and other modalities," the HHS spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News.
The statement said the CDC effort would involve working with universities "to develop protocols, conduct testing, and pursue approval for new uses of safe and effective therapeutics that meet the highest scientific standards."
While the CDC is continuing to recommend vaccination "as the most effective way to prevent the disease," the statement says they recognize some Americans "may choose not to vaccinate."
"Our commitment is to support all families — regardless of their vaccination status — in reducing the risk of hospitalization, serious complications, and death from measles," the statement said.
Kennedy hinted at the plans on Tuesday, telling reporters that there were "many, many good ways to treat measles and doctors need to know that and to know those methods."
"We are developing now a worksheet for doctors to address the epidemic, to address people who have it, not just with vaccination, but actually with budesonide, with clarithromycin, with vitamin A and many, many other treatments that have been shown very effective," Kennedy said in Texas, according to a video published by local television station WFAA.
The CDC did publish a fact sheet on Thursday for doctors treating measles, saying that other treatments "such as antibiotics should be prescribed based on clinical judgement by an individual healthcare provider."
Budesonide and clarithromycinFor weeks, Kennedy has praised the use of the drugs budesonide and clarithromycin for treating measles, claiming "miraculous and instantaneous recovery" for some patients despite scant evidence for the recommendation.
Anecdotal claims about success using the drugs stem from two Texas doctors — Dr. Ben Edwards and Dr. Richard Bartlett — whom Kennedy says he spoke with.
Experts have criticized Edwards for his approach for treating children in the outbreak, including interacting with patients and their families while he was sick with the highly contagious virus. Bartlett previously was criticized for the unfounded claim that budesonide was a "silver bullet" for treating COVID-19.
"There is no cure for measles, and it can result in serious complications. It's misleading and dangerous to promote the idea that measles is easily treated using unproven and ineffective therapies like budesonide and clarithromycin," the American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, said last month of the claim.
Dr. James Campbell, vice chair of the AAP committee that develops recommendations for doctors treating measles and other infectious diseases, told CBS News earlier this year that the drugs can sometimes help hospitals treat severe complications of measles.
While budesonide can help with lung inflammation and clarithromycin can fight off co-infections from other germs, Campbell cautioned that neither were antivirals for fighting the measles virus infection itself. He said decisions to use these drugs were best left up to doctors managing measles hospitalizations on an individual basis.
"In 2025, we should not have to treat measles in the U.S. because it is completely preventable, but of course, like all preventable diseases, we do," Campbell had said in an email.
Vitamin AKennedy's request for the CDC comes days after the agency stepped up its warning against overuse of vitamin A, which does not cure measles infections but can be useful for reducing the risk of severe illness. High levels of vitamin A can be toxic.
"Vitamin A does not prevent measles and is not a substitute for vaccination. Consistent with guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, vitamin A may be administered to infants and children in the United States with measles under the supervision of a healthcare provider as part of supportive management," the CDC said in updated guidance for doctors last month.
The agency cautioned that giving too much vitamin A to children could lead to toxicity "and cause damage to the liver, bones, central nervous system, and skin."
A total of two doses of vitamin A are recommended for doctors to prescribe under the agency's guidance, at specific doses depending on the age of the patient.
This is different from the unfounded approach touted by Kennedy to use cod liver oil to treat measles in children, which the AAP says can be dangerous.
"It has high amounts of vitamin A, much higher than the recommended daily amounts. It also can make kids sick if they take too much. In addition to vitamin A, cod liver oil is high in vitamin D — another nutrient that can be harmful if kids take more than the recommended daily amount," the association says.
Alexander Tin