The Texas Department of State Health Services is reporting an outbreak of measles in the South Plains and Panhandle regions of Texas.
As of March 25, 327 cases have been identified since late January. Forty 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: Hockley County has one confirmed case; Cochran County has seven confirmed cases; Lamb County has one confirmed case; Lubbock County has 10 confirmed cases; Yoakum County has 13 confirmed cases; Terry County has 37 confirmed cases; Garza County has one confirmed case; Hale County has one confirmed case; Dallam County has six confirmed cases; Lamar County has five confirmed cases; Dawson County has 13 confirmed cases; Ector County has two confirmed cases; Gaines County has 226 confirmed cases; Lynn County has confirmed one cases; and Martin County has confirmed three cases. Age ranges for the reported cases are as follows:
One hundred and five cases are between zero and four-yearsold; One hundred-forty cases are between five and 17-years-old; Sixty-three cases are 18years-old or higher; and Nineteen cases are pending. Vaccination status of the confirmed cases shows 325 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.