NBC News
The measles outbreak in western Texas continues to increase, and now it has possibly extended to the central part of the State and the neighboring state of New Mexico, health authorities said Friday.
The Texas State Health Services Department confirmed that there have been 146 cases of the highly contagious virus since the outbreak, focused on Gaines County, began at the end of January. Twenty people have been hospitalized and a child has died.
Some areas of the Texas center have been monitoring measles cases since an infected person traveled from Gaines County to San Marcos and San Antonio during the Valentine’s weekend.
The person visited the Campus of the University of Texas in San Antonio and several restaurants and convenience stores such as BuC-EE’s in other areas near the city.
“It is very possible that this person has been in contact with hundreds, if not thousands, of residents of our community, as well as with visitors,” said Anita Kurian, deputy director of communicable diseases of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, in a press conference this Friday. “We are a destination city. We are very concerned with the possibility of A great community exhibition in these public places”
In a separate information session this Friday, Katherine Wells, director of Public Health of the Department of Health of Lubbock, said that most of the community is vaccinated, although because measles is so contagious, they are contacting families and closely monitoring schools to detect more infections.
“I hope to see additional cases,” he said. “I am very nervous because there will be a case of measles in a school or a nursery. We are monitoring that close. ”
Dr. Ronald Cook, Health Director of the Center for Health Sciences of the Texas Technological University in Lubbock and the City Health Authority, warned that it is possible that people do not know if they have been exposed. The incubation period is seven to 14 days. The first symptoms are coughing, nasal secretion and conjunctivitis, or red and crying eyes, to which follows in the mouth and high fever from 39º C to 40º C (103º F A 104º F). Usually, the rashes begins in the scalp or in the face and goes down the body, he explained.
People are contagious “from four days before the rashes appears up to four days later,” Cook said. “Then, another 10 days are needed to overcome the disease.”
Kurian said that his office receives up to 80 daily calls from people concerned with having been exposed to measles in San Antonio. It could spend at least one week until cases can be confirmed.
“We hope to see any case that arises from these exhibitions for March 8,” he said.
Most or all hospitalized patients have been children. The children who have been admitted are extremely dehydrated or have serious breathing problems, Cook said during the informative session on Friday.
Young children have tiny airways that cannot easily handle the huge amounts of inflammation caused by measles, he explained.
Most cases are children who are not vaccinated, including a school -age child who died last Wednesday.
Health authorities are also trying to find out if the nine cases of measles in the neighboring state of New Mexico, announced above, are related to the Texas outbreak.
Cases not related to the current outbreak have also appeared in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Rhode Island.
The origin of the outbreak in western Texas, which is believed to start in a very united Mennonite community, is unknown, Wells said Friday.
“We are not going to have an answer soon,” he said, noting that other outbreaks in recent years have come from “an American citizen or someone who had traveled out of the country and brought him back.”
Although measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world, it can be controlled through the widespread use of the measles vaccine, papers and rubella (MMR, in English). Two doses of the vaccine have an efficacy of 97% in disease prevention, and The vast majority of American children receive it as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have long recommended: one dose around 12 months and another around 5 years.
As vaccination reluctance has been increasing over time, less and fewer children are vaccinated. The vaccine exemption rate in Gaines County was almost 18 for the 2023-24 school year, according to health department data.
There are no mandatory or quarantine vaccines forced in the communities affected by the current measles outbreak. However, free tests and vaccines are offered.
“We learned many lessons during the COVID-19,” Cook said. “We cannot force anyone to receive a medicine. That is an assault. ”
Cook added that he hopes the outbreak will grow in the coming weeks.
“It’s not a great forest fire,” he said. “It will be a latent fire, a weed fire, for a time until we finally stop and turn it off.”
Late on Thursday, the CDC published their first public statement on the outbreak. According to CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, in English) is “providing technical assistance, laboratory support, vaccines and therapeutic medication as necessary to the Texas State and Health Services Department”.
The CDC said that vaccination “It is still the best defense against measles infection”. At the beginning of the outbreak, the state health authorities of Texas requested 2,000 additional doses of the triple viral vaccine, which were provided by the CDCs.
There is no specific treatment or an antiviral medicine for measles. Doctors mainly try to keep patients hydrated and help them obtain enough oxygen.
