Measles outbreaks in Texas doubled to 48 cases in just one week. This marked the biggest outbreak of the state's virus in nearly 30 years.
At least 13 people have been hospitalized in Lone Star State under the recent outbreak. This is mainly concentrated in rural Gaines County, where many children are homeschooled or attend small private schools. .
According to the DSHS, given the infectious nature of the disease born in New Mexico, it is expected that more cases will be reported in the county and surrounding areas.
According to the DSHS, almost all cases (42 out of 48) have been reported in Gaines County, with the highest rate of school-age children opting out of at least one vaccine in Texas at nearly 14%. I have one.
But that percentage is likely higher, as it cannot include homeschooled people, officials said.
The state allows children to receive school vaccine exemptions for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs, so Texas has tripled more than tripled in the past decade. Masu.
However, Anton argued that religious exemptions were not the reason behind the outbreak of measles in Gaines County.
“The church is not the reason they are not vaccinated,” Anton said. “It's all a personal choice and you can do whatever you want, it means the community doesn't do it and get regular health care.”
The DSHS said the state has been working with local officials to increase screening and vaccination efforts in the county, with 80 people being vaccinated last week through a clinic hosted by the South Plains Public Health District.
In addition to the Gaines County outbreak, DSHS officials have discovered one incident in Linn County, three in Terry County and two in Yoakum County.
42 of the cases were reported in children under the age of 18.
The outbreak surpassed the 27 states' last major fears in 2013, when Asian visitors returned home and interacted with non-bacterienated communities.
The current numbers are roughly in line with the 1996 outbreak in Lone Star State, when authorities recorded 49 cases, according to DSHS data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it sent around 2,000 measles vaccines to Texas, but so far it has been distributed in partially vaccinated children, rather than unvaccinated.
The CDC can send experts to help quell the outbreak if the state demands it, and so far Texas has not done so, the agency said.
Three cases of measles have been reported in Lee County, across the New Mexico border, with the first involving unvaccinated teenagers who have not been exposed to the Texas outbreak.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appointed director of the Department of Health and Human Services, has not yet commented on the outbreak.
Comes with post wire.
