A total of 15 measles cases have been confirmed, mostly in school -age children, in a small western Texas county, where there is one of the lowest vaccination indices of the state.
The director of the Public Health District of South Plains, Zach Holbroks, declared on Monday that his department was first notified at the end of January on the first two cases in Gaines County and said that it was “two children who had Seen a doctor in Lubbock. “
Some of the cases seem to be related to private religious schools in the district, Holbrooks explained, who warned that the investigation is ongoing.
“I would not say that everyone is related, but our teams are investigating the places of exposure and the background of those cases,” he said.
Local health authorities established a street vaccination clinic last week and are offering detection services to residents.
In the United States An increase in measles cases in 2024 took placeincluding an outbreak in Chicago during which more than 60 people became ill. This month, the health authorities of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area have been working to contain a measles outbreak that has spread to two non -vaccinated relatives.
The Texas Law allows children to obtain an exemption from school vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The percentage of children with exemptions has increased in the last decade, and has gone from 0.76 % in 2014 to 2.32 % last year, according to data from the Texas State Health Services Department (DSHS, in English).
Gaines County has one of the highest rates of Texas of school -age children than They choose not to receive at least one of the mandatory vaccines: Almost 14 % of children from preschool to grade 12 had a vaccine exemption in the 2023-2024 school year, which is more than five times the state average of 2.32 % and more than the national rate of 3.3 %.
But the number of children not vaccinated in the county is probably significantly greater, said Lara Anton, spokesman for the DSHS, because Gaines County has many children who receive education at home and whose data is not reported.
Besampión, paper and rubella vaccines are a series of two injections: the first is recommended between 12 and 15 months of age and the second between 4 and 6 years. The vaccine is mandatory to attend most public schools in the United States.
But vaccination rates have decreased throughout the country from the COVID-19 pandemic and most states are below the 95 % vaccination threshold for preschool children, the necessary level to protect communities against Measles outbreaks. Legislators from all over the country have proposed several changes in vaccination requirements at one time in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has expressed his opposition to vaccines, is waiting to be confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
One of the first cases of Gaines County traveled to the neighboring state of New Mexico When they were still infectious, Anton said, but there were no immediate reports of infection. Robert Nott, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Health, declared that the agency has been in communication with Texas officials, but that no exposure to measles in their state is known.
“We are going to monitor this very closely,” Nook said.
In early January two cases of measles were notified in the Houston area, but Holbrooks explained that cases in western Texas do not seem to be related.
Measles is a very contagious virus that can survive in the air up to two hours. Up to nine out of 10 susceptible people will contract the virus if they are exposed to it, according to the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC, in English). Before the vaccine was used in 1963, in the United States, for the first time They were registered between 3 and 4 million cases a year. Now, there is usually less than 200 in a normal year.
