The West Texas measles outbreak continues to grow, now possibly spreading into the central part of the state and neighboring New Mexico, health officials said Friday.
The Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed there have been 146 cases of the highly contagious virus since the outbreak, centered in Gaines County, began in late January. Twenty people have been hospitalized and one child has died.
Parts of Central Texas have been monitoring for measles cases ever since an infected person traveled from Gaines County to San Marcos and San Antonio over Valentine’s Day weekend.
The person visited the University of Texas at San Antonio campus and a variety of restaurants and convenience stores like Buc-ee’s in other areas near the city.
“It’s very possible that this person could have come in contact with, if not hundreds, thousands of our community residents, as well as visitors,” Anita Kurian, San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Deputy Director of Communicable Disease, said at a media briefing Friday. “We are a destination city. We have real great concern of potential large community wide exposures at these public sites.”
In a separate briefing Friday, Katherine Wells, director of public health for Lubbock’s health department, said most of the community is vaccinated, although because measles is so contagious, they are reaching out to families and closely monitoring schools for more infections.
“I do expect to see additional cases,” she said. “I’m very nervous about getting a measles case in a school or a day care. We are closely monitoring that.”
Dr. Ronald Cook, chief health officer at both the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and the city’s Health Authority, cautioned that people may not know if they’ve been exposed. The incubation period is seven to 14 days. The earliest symptoms are a cough, a runny nose and conjunctivitis, or red, watery eyes, followed by sore spots in the mouth and a high fever of 103-104 degrees. A rash typically begins on the scalp or face and works its way down the body, he said.
People are infectious “from four days before the rash appears until four days after the rash,” said Cook. “Then it’s another 10 days to get over the disease.”
Kurian said her office is getting up to 80 calls a day from people who are concerned about their exposure to measles in San Antonio. It could be at least a week until cases reveal themselves.
“We expect to see any cases coming out of these exposures by March 8,” she said.
Most or all of the hospitalized patients have been children. Kids who have been admitted are either extremely dehydrated or are having serious trouble breathing, Cook said during the briefing Friday.
Small children have tiny airways that can’t easily handle the massive amounts of inflammation caused by measles, he said.
Most of the cases are unvaccinated children, including a school-age child who died on Wednesday.
Health officials are also trying to figure out if nine measles cases in neighboring New Mexico, announced previously, are linked to the Texas outbreak.
Cases unrelated to the current outbreak have also popped up in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City and Rhode Island.
The origin of the West Texas outbreak, which is believed to have started within a close-knit Mennonite community, is unknown, Wells said Friday.
“We’re not going to have an answer anytime soon,” she said, noting that other outbreaks in recent years have come from “a U.S. citizen or someone traveling out of the country and bringing it back in.”
While measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world, it’s controlled by widespread use of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) in a population. Two doses of the shot are 97% effective in preventing the disease, and the vast majority of U.S. kids get them as the CDC has long recommended: one dose around age 1, and another around age 5.
As vaccine hesitancy has increased over time, fewer kids are getting their shots. The vaccine exemption rate in Gaines County was nearly 18% for the 2023-24 school year, according to health department data.
There are no vaccine mandates or forced quarantines in the communities affected by the current measles outbreak. There is, however, free testing and vaccinations being offered.
“We learned lots of lessons during Covid,” Cook said. “We can’t force anybody to take a drug. That’s assault.”
Cook said he expects the outbreak will grow in the coming weeks.
“It’s not a huge wildfire,” he said. “It’s going to be a smoldering fire, a tumbleweed fire, for a while until we finally get it stopped and put out.”
Late Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted its first public statement about the outbreak. According to the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services is “providing technical assistance, laboratory support, vaccines, and therapeutic medication as needed to the Texas Department of State and Health Services.”
The CDC said that vaccination “remains the best defense against measles infection.” Early in the outbreak, state health authorities in Texas asked for 2,000 extra doses of the MMR vaccine, which were provided by the CDC.
There is no specific treatment or antiviral drug for measles. Doctors mainly try to keep patients hydrated and help them get enough oxygen.
Marina Kopf contributed.
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