The Texas Department of State Health Services is reporting an outbreak of measles in the South Plains and Panhandle regions of Texas.
At this time, 279 cases have been identified since late January. Thirty-six of the patients have been hospitalized.
There has been one fatality in a school-aged child who lived in the outbreak area. The child was not vaccinated and had no known underlying conditions.
Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities. DSHS is working with local health departments to investigate the outbreak.
Cases by counties are as follows: Cochran County has confirmed seven cases; Lubbock County has confirmed five cases; Yoakum County has confirmed 11 cases; Terry County has confirmed 36 cases; Dallam County has confirmed six cases; Dawson County has confirmed 11 cases; Ector County has confirmed two cases; Gaines County has confirmed 191 cases; Lynn County has confirmed two cases; and Martin County has confirmed three cases. Age ranges for the reported cases are as follows:
Eighty-eight cases are between zero and four-years-old; One hundred-twenty cases are between five and 17-yearsold; Fifty-two cases are 18-yearsold or higher; and Nineteen cases are pending. Vaccination status of the confirmed cases shows 277 cases unvaccinated or unknown and two vaccinated with at least two doses.
The unvaccinated or unknown category includes people with no documented doses of measles vaccine more than 14 days before symptom onset.
After additional investigation into the details of individual measles cases, DSHS has determined that three cases previously classified as vaccinated were not vaccinated cases. Two of those cases got their vaccine doses one to two days before their symptoms started, after they had been exposed to the virus. It takes the body about 14 days after vaccination to develop immunity to measles, so people aren’t considered vaccinated until that 14-day period has passed.
DSHS has determined that the third case was a Lubbock County resident who had a vaccine reaction rather than a measles infection based on the results of MeVA testing, which detected the vaccine strain. This case has been removed from the case count entirely. The measles vaccine can occasionally cause a reaction with a rash and fever that mimic measles, but it is not a measles infection and cannot spread to other people.
Information is updated on Tuesday’s and Friday’s on the DSHS website.