Measles misinformation drives spike in pediatric vitamin A exposures

False advice about measles did more than confuse families. It pushed parents toward vitamin A and cod liver oil, and the fallout showed up in poison-center calls, search spikes and preventable pediatric exposures layered on top of a national outbreak.

America’s Poison Centers said U.S. poison centers recorded 86 pediatric vitamin A exposures from January 1 through March 31, 2025, a 38.7% increase from the same stretch in 2024. The organization said the cases did not become more severe and no major effects were reported, but the rise still marked a measurable burst of harmful self-treatment as measles spread.

The pattern in online behavior matched the clinical concern. A JAMA Network Open study found search interest for “vitamin A” and measles rose 44% on February 26, then peaked at 100% on March 22. Search interest for “cod liver” and measles peaked at 52.6% on March 5. The shifts lined up with public statements that began on February 19, 2025, promoting vitamin A as a measles treatment after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed the MMR vaccine causes encephalitis.

That is the second-order damage of misinformation: not only does it weaken confidence in vaccination, it sends people toward remedies that can injure children. Vitamin A does have a real medical role in some measles cases, especially when children are deficient, but that role belongs under a clinician’s supervision. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says vitamin A does not prevent measles and is not a substitute for vaccination, though it may be given to infants and children with measles as part of supportive management. The American Academy of Pediatrics says vitamin A does not prevent or cure measles, and that cod liver oil does not prevent measles and can make children sick if taken in excess.

That warning mattered in a year when measles came roaring back. The United States reported 2,288 confirmed measles cases in 2025, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Red Book outbreak tracker. The Southwest outbreak in Texas became one of the largest U.S. outbreaks since measles was declared eliminated in 2000, while Utah’s long-running outbreak kept hospitals, pediatricians and families under pressure for nearly a year.

The broader lesson reaches beyond one nutrient. When false home-treatment claims spread faster than corrections, poison centers and emergency rooms become the backstop for a public-health failure. They are left treating the injuries that follow the outbreak, not just the outbreak itself.