By Sean Murphy and Devi Shastri
Fifteen cases of measles – mainly in school -aged children – have been confirmed in a small county in western Texas with one of the highest rates of exemptions from vaccines in the state.
South Plains’s public health district, Zach Holbrooks, said on Monday that his department had been informed for the first time at the end of January of the first two cases in the county of Gaines, who, according to him, were “two children who had Given a doctor in Lubbock ”.
Some cases seem to be linked to private religious schools in the district, said Holbrooks, who warned that the investigation was underway.
“I would not say that they are all connected, but our teams examine the exhibition sites and the context of these cases,” he said.
Local health officials set up a vaccination clinic by car last week and offer screening services to residents.
The United States has increased in cases of measles in 2024, including an epidemic in Chicago which reported over 60 years. This month, Metro Atlanta health officials are working to contain a case of measles that has spread to two non-vaccinated family members.
Texas law allows children to obtain an exemption from school vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The percentage of children with exemptions has increased in the last decade, from 0.76% in 2014 to 2.32% last year, according to data from Texas Department of State Health Services.
The county of sheaths has one of the highest prices in Texas of school children who withdrew from at least one required vaccine: almost 14% of children from kindergarten to the 12th year have had an exemption in the Course of the 2023-24 school year, which is more than five times the average of the state of 2.32% and beyond the national rate of 3.3%.
But the number of children not vaccinated in the county is probably much higher, said the spokesperson for DSHS, Lara Anton, because the county of sheaths has many children schooling at home and whose data would not be reported .
Vaccines with measles, mumps and rubella are a two -stroke series: the first is recommended at 12 to 15 months and second between 4 and 6 years. The vaccine is required to frequent most public schools in the United States
But vaccination rates have decreased nationally from the COVVI -19 pandemic and most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergarten – the level necessary to protect communities against epidemics measles. Legislators across the country have proposed various changes to the requirements of vaccines at a time when anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., awaits confirmation as secretary for health and social services.
One of the first cases of the county of Gaines went to the neighboring New Mexico when they were still contagious, said Anton, but there was no immediate report of infection. New Mexico health officials did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Monday.
Two cases of measles were reported in early January in the Houston region, but Holbrooks said that the cases of western Texas do not seem to be connected.
Measles is a very contagious virus that can survive in the air up to two hours. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 9 out of 10 people will receive the virus if they are exposed. Before the introduction of the vaccine in 1963, the United States saw some 3 to 4 million cases per year. Now it is generally less than 200 during a normal year.
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Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
