Texas’ historic measles outbreaks are only 200 cases, Texas health officials said Friday that the number of cases in neighboring New Mexico states tripled to 30.
Most cases in both countries are people under the age of 18, those who have not been vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
Texas health officials have identified 39 new infectious diseases, leading to a total outbreak of West Texas outbreaks in 198 since it began in late January. So far, 23 people have been hospitalized.
Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas. This was the first measles death in the country in 10 years. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that it was sending teams to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the outbreak.
New Mexico health officials had been reporting a stable number of cases in Lee County for weeks. However, on Friday, state health officials provided weekly numbers to Associated Press, showing a steady increase from 14 on February 9th this week to 30.
A health department spokesperson said more cases are expected, and many of the reported cases were not identified until after the people’s illness went through the course. The department says it failed to prove a clear link to the Texas outbreak, but on February 14, the link said it was “suspected.”
On Thursday, New Mexico health officials confirmed that an unvaccinated adult who died without seeking medical care tested positive for measles. The state medical investigator has not announced the official cause of death, but the state health department said Friday it was “measles related.”
The CDC said Friday it also confirmed measles cases in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington. But the outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico account for the majority of the country’s lawsuits.
The rise in measles cases was a major test for the secretary of the Department of Health and Welfare, anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who questioned the safety of pediatric vaccines. Recently, he stopped recommending people get the vaccine and promoted unproven treatments for viruses such as cod liver oil.
Kennedy dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual,” but most local doctors in the western Texas region told The Associated Press that their carriers had never seen a case of measles before the outbreak.
Measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are safe and are extremely effective in preventing infections and severe cases. The first shot is recommended for children aged 12-15 months and for children aged 4-6 years for the second.
Childhood vaccination rates across the country are falling as the number of parents seeking exemptions from public school requirements for personal or religious reasons is increasing. In Gaines County, Texas, kindergartens have an 82% measles vaccination rate, much below the 95% required to prevent an outbreak.
Many of the Gaines County cases lie in the county’s “close, unbactinized” Mennonite communities. This is a diverse group that has historically low vaccination rates and whose members may be distrustful of government mandates and interventions.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to 2 hours. According to the CDC, up to nine of the 10 susceptible people will be ingested when exposed. The success of the vaccine led the US to think that measles was eliminated in 2000.
