Measles Outbreak in West Texas Spreads to 48 Cases

An electron microscope image of a measles virus particle, in this file photo. The Canadian Press/AP-Cynthia Goldsmith/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via AP

The measles outbreak in western Texas has escalated to at least 48 cases, the state’s health officials said Friday.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the vast majority of infected individuals are children. So far, 13 patients have been hospitalized.

All but six of those cases are from the sparsely populated Gaines County at the New Mexico border. The remaining cases are scattered across neighboring Lynn, Terry, and Yoakum counties.

The ongoing outbreak was first reported two weeks ago when Texas health officials reported two measles cases in unvaccinated school-aged children from Gaines County. Both children were hospitalized in Lubbock and later discharged. By last week, the number of cases had risen to 10, and it has continued to climb since then.

The figure has surpassed that of the 2013 outbreak, in which an unvaccinated traveler returned from Indonesia and spread the disease through a church community. A total of 27 cases were reported across the state in 2013, the highest annual case count in over 20 years.

Lara Anton, a spokesperson for Texas Department of State Health Services, said the recent outbreak appears to have originated in a Mennonite community in Gaines County. The Mennonite church is not widely opposed to vaccination, but many of the families in the highly rural county homeschool their children or send them to small private schools, where they are not subject to vaccination requirements.

“The church isn’t the reason that they’re not vaccinated,” Anton said. “It’s all personal choice and you can do whatever you want. It’s just that the community doesn’t go and get regular health care.”

Rural Texas isn’t alone in new measles cases. In January, Texas health authorities reported two cases in Houston, both involving unvaccinated adults who had a recent history of international travel.

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease, spreading easily through coughing and sneezing. Symptoms typically include a high fever, cough, runny nose, and a distinctive rash that begins on the face before spreading across the body. In severe cases, measles can cause serious complications and even death.

Cases of measles have surged more than two decades after the disease was officially declared eliminated in the United States—a status indicating that there had been no continuous spreading of the disease for 12 months. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more measles cases have been reported in the first three months of 2024 than all of 2023.

Texas and federal health officials have consistently said that vaccination is the best way to prevent getting sick from measles. The vaccination process includes two separate doses.

On Fev. 13, the Senate approved Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). A prominent advocate for vaccine safety, Kennedy told the Senate at his confirmation hearing he is not anti-vaccine or opposed to the vaccine schedule, and that he supported certain vaccines.

“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine,” he said. “I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.