Texas and New Mexico Measles Outbreak Grows to Over 150 Cases

On Feb. 28, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported 146 cases have been identified since late January in an outbreak of measles across nine counties in West Texas. Twenty of the patients have been hospitalized, while the number is estimated to be higher, as CMM previously reported. 

While most cases are in patients who were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, five cases were found in people who said they have been vaccinated. Most cases are in school age children aged 5 to 17 years old. 

Most cases (98) have occurred in Gaines County, which is a rural community with many families that send children to small private schools or are homeschooled. As CMM previously reported, Gaines County also had the third highest vaccine exemption rate in Texas last year.  

As of Feb. 28, nine measles cases also have been reported in neighboring New Mexico’s Lea County, but health officials have not confirmed if the cases are connected. 

DSHS’s update comes days after the state reported the death of a school-aged child who was not vaccinated and had been hospitalized in Lubbock. The death marked the first from measles in a decade. 

Health experts across Texas also are concerned about the spread of highly contagious respiratory illness. CNN reported the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department sent letters to superintendents of districts with high rates of vaccination exemptions to urge them to pay attention to the outbreak. 

Nationwide though, NBC News reported that while the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) said his department is tracking the Texas outbreak, he shared incorrect information on Feb. 26 in addition to being mostly absent from HHS. RFK is a longtime critic of well-established vaccines, and the measles outbreak marks a challenge to the Trump administration’s policy so far, especially after research funding cuts and the reduction of staff at the U.S. Centers and Disease Control, as CMM previously reported.