Texas Measles Cases Reach 561

Reuters (4/15, E Sunny, Garcia, Steenhuysen) reports the Texas Department of State Health Services “reported 561 cases of measles in the state on Tuesday, an increase of 20 from April 11, as the U.S. government said it was sending seven people to the state to help battle the outbreak of the childhood disease.” Notably, cases in Gaines County, “the center of the outbreak, rose to 364 from 355 reported on Friday.” Dr. David Sugerman, from the CDC’s Division of Viral Diseases, said during Tuesday’s meeting of the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that the federal response “was being hindered by the cancellation of about $11 billion in federal grants to states that were allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were being used to track, prevent and control infectious diseases, including measles and bird flu.” ABC News (4/15, Kekatos) reports the Texas health department said that “almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown. Four of the cases are among residents who have been vaccinated with one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. Seven cases are among those vaccinated with two doses.” At least 58 people have been hospitalized so far. Meanwhile, CNN (4/15, Christensen) reports that “there have been at least 760 cases in 24 states this year,” but “many experts believe that the actual case count stands in the thousands.” Dr. Nina Masters, a senior research scientist at Truveta, said cases may be undercounted in the ongoing outbreak “because people aren’t getting tested or because they may be staying away from hospitals.” Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said, “I don’t think any of us have full situational awareness of what’s going on with this outbreak.”