One hundred forty-six measles cases have been reported in the outbreak in West Texas, the Texas Department of Health Services said in an update today. This is 22 more confirmed cases since an update on Tuesday, when 124 cases were reported.
Twenty patients have been hospitalized, and most cases are in children aged 5 to 17 years old.
Around 10% of cases have been in infants, who can have serious outcomes from measles, Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner for the Texas department of State Health Services said on Friday. Infants younger than 1 are generally not protected with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine; the first shot is recommended when babies reach 12 to 15 months of age. However, during an outbreak, some infants younger than 1 may receive a dose of vaccine.
The actual number of measles cases in Texas is greater than what is reported in Friday’s update, she said. Some cases may have gone uncounted and others are awaiting lab confirmation.
The bulk of cases, 98, remain in Gaines County, where the outbreak began, but there has been spread to eight other counties, including Terry County with 21 cases.
While most cases are in patients that were unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status, five cases were found in people who said they have been vaccinated.
The update comes days after Texas announced the outbreak’s first death – a school-aged child who was not vaccinated and had been hospitalized in Lubbock. It is the first measles death in the United States in a decade.
Given the contagious nature of the illness, officials expect more spread of the illness.
“We’re going to see continued increases in numbers of measles until we get … more vaccinations into our community,” Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock Public Health told CNN’s Phil Mattingly on Thursday.
The state health department issued an alert Monday notifying residents of possible exposures in Central and South Central Texas; a person who was later diagnosed with measles visited the San Marcos and San Antonio areas last weekend.
A Houston rodeo with events getting undreway now is one cause for concern as it draws in a number of West Texas families, according to Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Other parts of the state are also preparing for possible spread. In Dallas, officials are analyzing school vaccination data and sending letters to superintendents of districts with high rates of vaccination exemptions to urge them to pay attention to the issue, Dr. Philip Huang, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department, said.
“We’re trying to find out any pockets that might be vulnerable, and in general, get everyone’s vaccination rates up,” Huang said.
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