By Devi Shastri
A historic epidemic of measles in western Texas only made 2,000 cases, the Health of the State of Texas, while the number of cases in the neighboring New Mexico, announced in one day at 30 on Friday.
Most cases in both states are in people under the age of 18 and people who are not vaccinated or who have unknown vaccination status.
Texas health officials have identified 39 new infections of highly contagious disease, which has made the total count in western Texas epidemic at 198 people since its start to the end of January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far.
Last week, a school -aged child died of measles in Texas, the first death of the country’s measles in a decade. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that they were sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the epidemic.
On the other side of the border of the state of the epidery of the epidemic, the county of Lea, the new-mexic, had 10 cases on Thursday after health officials confirmed that an unvaccinated adult who died without asking for medical care had the virus, although on Friday, measles was not confirmed as a cause.
But in an update on the website of the State Department of Health, the number of cases in the County of Lea increased Friday at 30 on Friday. The ministry said that he had not been able to prove a clear link with the Texas epidemic; On February 14, he indicated that a link was “suspected”.
The CDC said on Friday that it also confirmed measles cases in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington.
But Texas and New Mexico epidemics compensate most of the country.
The increase in measles cases was a major test for the US Secretary for Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has questioned the safety of infant vaccines. Recently, he ceased to recommend that people get the vaccine and have promoted unproven treatments for the virus, such as cod liver oil.
Kennedy rejected the Texas epidemic as “not unusual”, although most local doctors in the western region of Texas told the Associated Press that they had never seen a case of measles in their career until this epidemic.
The measles vaccine, mumps and rubella is safe and very effective in preventing infection and serious cases. The first blow is recommended for children aged 12 to 15 months and the second for 4 to 6 year olds.
Infantile vaccination rates across the country have decreased because an increasing number of parents are looking for exemptions from public school requirements for personal or religious reasons. In the county of Gaines, Texas, which has the majority of cases, the rate of vaccination of the measles of kindergarten is 82% – well below the 95% necessary to prevent epidemics.
Many cases of the county of sheaths are in the Mennonite community of the county, a group “wrongly and subvacinated” of the county, a diversified group which has always had lower vaccination rates and whose members can be wary of government and intervention mandates.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air up to two hours. According to the CDC. Due to the success of the vaccine, the United States considered measles eliminated in 2000.
The Department of Health and Sciences of the Associated Press receives the support of the scientific and educational group of the media from the medical institute Howard Hughes and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
