Officials are investigating a measles outbreak hitting areas in west Texas, with more than a dozen patients hospitalized, the news coming after health agencies said the childhood disease was eliminated in 2000.
Officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services said approximately 48 cases were identified, with symptom onset in the past few weeks, Fox News reported Saturday.
The outbreak initially involved school-aged children in Gaines County but has since apparently spread to the counties of Lynn, Terry, and Yoakum.
“The patients are overwhelmingly children, all were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status, and 13 have so far been hospitalized. Health officials expect additional cases to emerge,” AFP reported Friday. The outlet also said childhood vaccination rates have declined in recent years.
“The bulk of the cases occurred in Gaines County, which reportedly has a high rate of exemptions to vaccines — often granted on religious grounds,” the article said.
According to the Texas State Department of Health and Human Services (DSHS) website, “Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person.”
The site continued:
When that person sneezes or coughs, droplets spray into the air and can infect people around him. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected with the measles virus. Also, measles virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed. If other people breath the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 48,000 hospitalizations and 400 to 50o deaths a year due to measles before the vaccine was introduced, KVUE reported Friday.
Video footage shows images of what a measles rash looks like on a patient:
“The best way to prevent getting sick is by receiving two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, according to officials,” the Fox article explained.
On Friday, authorities confirmed some measles cases in New Mexico, according to CBS 11.
