ARS TECHNICA – An outbreak of measles in one of Texas’ least vaccinated counties continues to rapidly expand, with officials reporting 24 cases Tuesday, up from just nine confirmed on Friday.
According to an update by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), all 24 cases identified in the two-week-old outbreak are in unvaccinated people. Nine of the patients (37.5 percent) required hospitalization.
Most of the cases are in children. DSHS provided an age breakdown that listed six cases as being in infants and young children between the ages of 0 and 4.
This is the age group most vulnerable to measles because they have a heightened risk of complications from the disease and may be too young to be fully vaccinated with the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Children are recommended to get two doses of the MMR vaccine, one between 12 and 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years. One dose of MMR vaccine is estimated to be 93 percent effective against measles, while two doses are 97 percent effective.
“All 24 cases are in unvaccinated people, 22 of which are under age 17.”
Of the remainder of the 24 cases, 16 were between the ages of 5 and 17, and two were 18 or older.
All of the identified cases are in Gaines County, which sits at the border of New Mexico and is around 90 miles southwest of Lubbock, Texas.
In the 2023–2024 school year, just about 82 percent of kindergartners in Gaines were up to date on routine childhood vaccines, including MMR. That’s significantly below the target of 95 percent, the level required to prevent infectious diseases from spreading onward in a community.
In line with the low vaccination rate, nearly 18 percent of kindergartners in Gaines have conscientious exemptions from required vaccinations, which are exemptions based on reasons of conscience, including religious belief.
In an interview with Ars Technica last week, Zach Holbrooks, the executive director of the South Plains Public Health District (SPPHD), which includes Gaines, said that the area has a large religious community that has expressed vaccine hesitancy …
