A measles outbreak in rural West Texas has doubled in size to 48 cases, the Texas Department of State Health Services said on Friday.
“At this time, 48 cases have been identified with symptom onset within the last three weeks. Thirteen of the patients have been hospitalized. All of the cases are unvaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities,” the DSHS said. The outbreak is the most severe Texas has seen in 30 years.
Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Lara Anton said the cases have been concentrated in a “close-knit, under vaccinated” Mennonite community. The outbreak is in a sparsely populated swath of rural Texas, near the New Mexico border, and has spread from its epicenter in Gaines County to include single-digit cases in Lynn, Terry, and Yoakum counties.
Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year. Health officials say that number is likely higher because it doesn't include many children who are homeschooled and whose data would not be reported
“The church isn’t the reason that they’re not vaccinated,” Anton said. “It’s all personal choice and you can do whatever you want. It’s just that the community doesn’t go and get regular healthcare.”
Measles is a highly contagious virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, the U.S. saw some 3 million to 4 million cases per year. Now, it’s usually fewer than 200 in a normal year.
Dale Bratzler, the dean of the University of Oklahoma’s Hudson College of Public Health, told KFOR that the outbreak is to be expected due to the percentage of unvaccinated children. “Measles used to kill, you know, so many children, and we’re starting to see outbreaks again because parents are not getting their kids vaccinated. When the population rate of vaccination starts to fall below 95 percent, you’re going to have outbreaks.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.