The running Measles outbreak in west -texas has doubled in size to 48 cases, usually in children and teenagers, making it the worst of the state in almost 30 years.
State health officials Friday said in a press release that those who are infected are not -vaccinated or that their vaccination status is unknown. Thirteen people were admitted to the hospital.
The cases are concentrated in a “close, under vaccinated” Mennonite community, spokesperson Lara Anton, spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Services, said. Gaines County is very rural, so many of the families send their children to small private schools or his home schooled, Anton said.
“The church is not the reason that they are not vaccinated,” said Anton. “It’s all personal choice and you can do what you want. It is normal that the community is not going and will receive regular health care. “
Anton said that the state cooperates with local health officials to increase the efforts of screening and vaccination. Health officials also work to train school officials in identifying symptoms of measles and encouraging families to vaccinate their children.
The outbreak is in a sparsely populated strip of the rural Texas, near the border between New Mexico, and has spread from his epicenter in Gaines County to record things with one digit in Lynn, Terry and Yoakum Counties.
One case was reported in Lea County, New Mexico, true Residents were warned on Tuesday To a measles store in a non -vaccinated teenager. The New Mexico Department of Health said that the teenager had no recent trip or exposure to known cases from the Texas outbreak.
Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services shows that in 1996 there were 49 measles cases in Texas. In 2013, 27 cases were reported after a person traveling to Asia came back and had interact with a vaccine hsitter, the state reported.
Measles is a highly contagious virus that can survive in the air for two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible, get the virus if they are exposed, According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, the US saw around 3 million to 4 million cases a year. Now it is usually less than 200 in a normal year.
Saw the US An increase in measles cases in 2024Including an outbreak in Chicago that made more than 60 sick.
Vaccination against measles, a series with two shots, is required for most American kindergarten to register for the public school.
The Texas law allows children to get an exemption from school vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The percentage of children with exemptions has risen from 0.76% in 2014 to 2.32% last decade, according to the state facts.
Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-going children who unsubscribe from at least one required vaccine, with almost 14% of the K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year. Health officials say that the number is probably higher, because it does not include many children who are home schooled and whose data would not be reported.
– Sean Murphy and Devi Shastri