Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing alternative measles treatments as the United States endures its worst outbreak since 2019.

The Centers for Disease Control published figures indicating the U.S. has seen at least 308 measles cases this year, with the majority in New Mexico and Texas. The total as of March is higher than the entirety of last year, which ended with 285 infections.

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World health experts are pushing to raise vaccination rates to combat the virus, while Kennedy advocates for better diets, fish oil, and vitamin A.

“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call,” Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, said in a statement. “Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security. As we shape our new regional health strategy for Europe and central Asia, we cannot afford to lose ground. Every country must step up efforts to reach under-vaccinated communities.” 

Measles is highly contagious and causes a large rash with flu-like symptoms like fever, runny nose and cough.

Kennedy has been skeptical of vaccines at times, recently saying that they do work but also cause “adverse events.

“It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself [causes], encephalitis and blindness, et cetera,” he said.

Experts have pushed back on Kennedy’s proposed methods of treatment as a substitute for antiviral treatment, acknowledging they may help infected people in some circumstances.

“Because it has been described that patients with vitamin A deficiency can have a more severe course, the WHO recommends low doses of vitamin A for children diagnosed with measles,” Dr. Carla Garcia Carreno, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Medical Center Plano in Texas, told ABC News. “This is a supplementation in case of deficiency, and it is not intended to treat the virus. High doses of vitamin A can have serious consequences.”

Another medical expert said that while good nutrition is beneficial, “it’s certainly not a substitute for vaccination.”

“There’s no evidence that it can prevent infection, no evidence that it can prevent an infected person from spreading the virus and contributing to one of these outbreaks,” Dr. Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch, told the outlet.

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Children who receive measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines at 12 to 15 months and again between 4 and 6 years old are considered adequately protected against the virus.

The first person to die of measles since 2019, a child in West Texas, passed away in February. This year’s measles outbreak is on track to challenge or surpass the 2019 outbreak, which infected 1,274 people.