Texas Measles Outbreak Grows to Nearly 60 Cases, Spreads to New Mexico

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is reporting an outbreak of measles in the South Plains region of Texas, including Gaines and Lubbock Counties. As of Tuesday, 58 measles cases have been identified in rural West Texas with symptom onset within the last three weeks. Thirteen of the patients have been hospitalized. Four of the cases are vaccinated. The rest are unvaccinated, or their vaccination status is unknown. DSHS reported the majority (33) of the cases were in children aged 5-17 years, while 15 cases were in children aged 4 or less. 

The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) on Feb. 14 reported three cases for the week in Lea County, which borders Texas’s Gaines County. As of Tuesday, New Mexico’s measles cases had grown to eight, the Associated Press reported. While a connection to the Texas outbreak is suspected, NMDOH said it remains unconfirmed.  

Additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities due to the highly contagious nature of this disease. The measles virus can survive in the air for up to two hours.  

Most cases have been concentrated 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 has the third highest vaccine exemption rate in Texas last year. 

The best way to prevent getting sick is to be immunized with two doses of a vaccine against measles, which is primarily administered as the combination measles-mumps-rubella  (MMR) vaccine. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are highly effective at preventing measles, DSHS said. The South Plains Public Health District reported at least 80 people have received the MMR vaccine during the past week. 

Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 285 measles cases. In 2024, 16 measles outbreaks occurred, which the CDC defines as three or more related cases. Nearly 70% of cases last year were outbreak-associated.  Vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners also has decreased from 95.2% during the 2019–2020 school year to 92.7% in the 2023–2024 school year, leaving approximately 280,000 kindergartners at risk during the 2023–2024 school year.