After RFK Jr. recommends vitamin A as a measles treatment, some Texas patients show signs of toxicity

Weeks after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. touted vitamin A as an effective treatment for measles amid the largest outbreak of disease in decades, hospitalized patients in West Texas are being treated for signs of vitamin A toxicity.

Several patients at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock have been found to have abnormal liver function, CNN reported, which can occur when a person takes excessive doses of vitamin A. Those being treated include “a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage,” the New York Times reported.

More than 320 people in Texas have contracted measles in recent weeks. Forty people have been hospitalized in the state and one child has died in the current outbreak. As of March 27, there have been 411 reported cases of measles in the United States in 2025 and two deaths overall.

‘Flying off the shelves’

One week after RFK Jr.’s March 4 interview on Fox News, during which he touted the “very good” results of treating measles with vitamin A-rich cod liver oil, pharmacies in West Texas saw demand skyrocket.

“It’s flying off the shelves,” Tyler Schultz, pharmacy manager at Drug Emporium in Lubbock told KLBK News earlier this month about cod liver oil.

On Thursday, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade organization for the food supplement industry, issued a statement in response to recent media reports that parents were giving their children excessive doses of vitamin A as a way to treat or try to prevent contracting measles.

“While vitamin A plays an important role in supporting overall immune function, research hasn’t established its effectiveness in preventing measles infection. CRN is concerned about reports of high-dose vitamin A being used inappropriately, especially in children,” the statement said.

While large doses of vitamin A have been shown to be effective in helping to treat severe cases of measles, health experts warn that it should be administered under the guidance of a physician.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases states on its website that “when measles does occur, vitamin A can be an effective treatment when appropriately administered by a healthcare professional.”

Taking too much vitamin A can also be dangerous.

Symptoms of vitamin A toxicity

On its website, Cleveland Clinic states that “Acute vitamin A toxicity happens when somebody — usually a child — accidentally ingests a megadose of vitamin A.”

The most common symptoms include headache, a rash that may cause skin to peel, drowsiness, irritability, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, the clinic said.

Kennedy directed the CDC to update its measles guidance to promote the use of vitamin A.

“While there is no approved antiviral for those who may be infected, CDC has recently updated their recommendation supporting administration of vitamin A under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate, and severe infection,” Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, wrote in a March 2 op-ed published by Fox News. “Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality.”

But the study Kennedy referenced looked at the effectiveness of vitamin A “treatment and supplementation in addition to offering two doses of vaccine to all children.” And in his Fox News interview two days later, Kennedy suggested vitamin A could also work “as a prophylaxis” to measles, which is not true.

Vaccines work against measles

"I just want to be abundantly clear that vitamin A is not a replacement for vaccination," Dr. Stacey Rose, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, told Houston Public Media earlier this month. "I think the reason that vitamin A is part of the conversation is because vitamin A supplementation has been shown to reduce mortality or death associated with measles infection, especially in young children and in populations or areas where children tend to be malnourished."

Health care experts have marveled at how an entirely preventable childhood disease has continued to circulate thanks to vaccine skepticism.

“Given that two (2) doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine are 97% effective in preventing the disease, it should not be necessary for a parent or a healthcare professional to know how to treat measles,” the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases states on its website.

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