Measles Outbreak Grows In West Texas Where Vaccination Rates Remain Low

CNN (2/7, McPhillips) reported, “A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level.” Near the end of last month, “two children in Gaines County were hospitalized for measles,” but “on Wednesday, the state health department shared in a health alert that the number of confirmed cases had grown to six.” By Friday afternoon, the outbreak had “jumped to 14 confirmed cases and six probable cases among people who are symptomatic and had close contact with infected individuals, Zach Holbrooks, executive director of the South Plains Public Health District, told CNN.” Investigations are still “ongoing, as cases have been identified in parts of the region that are outside the Gaines County lines where the first cases were reported.” KFF Health News (2/7, Maxmen) reported, “Gaines County has one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in Texas.” At one “local public school district in the community of Loop, only 46% of kindergarten students have gotten vaccines against measles, mumps, and rubella.” Vaccination rates could “be even lower at private schools and within homeschool groups, which don’t always report the information.”