A deterioration in the deterioration of measles has been rooted in Texas, ill two dozen and hospitalized nine on the west end of the state, where child vaccination rates have declined in recent years.
On Tuesday, 22 children and two adults were infected, all of them were not vaccinated, local health officials said. The outburst comes as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a strong childhood vaccine critic, has been appointed as the country’s next health secretary, causing public health experts to worry that similar upticks of preventive diseases will become more frequent.
“There is a feeling that this will be more and more common,” said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease expert at Duke University.
The outbreak of Texas has so far been confined to residents of the Gaines County, which borders New Mexico and has about 20,000 inhabitants. Last year, 82 percent of kindergarten students received the measles, mumps and reds vaccine, according to state data. This number is about 10 percentage points lower than the average vaccination rate in Texas public schools and well below the 95 % federal target for measles vaccination.
Vaccination rates are reduced nationally since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and now sit below 93 %. It is estimated that 280,000 kindergarteners in the United States do not have a MMR vaccine documentation, according to federal data.
Texas public schools demand that children have received certain vaccines, including MMR shooting, but parents may apply for “reasons of consciousness”, including religious beliefs.
Last year, more than 13 % of K-12 students in Gaines County received a vaccine, according to state health department data. This is one of the highest state exemption rates.
Lara Anton, a spokesman for the Texas Ministry of Health, said the cases had gathered in a “more island” community in the county, among the people who attend ecclesiastical and private schools. Many of the children are also at home, Mrs Anton said.
Local Health Departments have created moving vaccination clinics in Seminole, a city downtown Gaines known for the Great Mennonite community. So far, they have watched well, Ms Anton said.
The most common side effects of measles – a high fever and a red rash – usually resolved alone in a few weeks. But there are severe complications, including pneumonia and brain, especially for children under 5 years of age.
About one in five non -vaccinated people who are infected with measles are hospitalized, according to the control and prevention centers. Ms Anton said that nine of the patients were children of school age and that many of them had spent time in the Intensive Care Unit.
“It’s a serious illness,” he said. “We try to impress it in the community that you need to take steps now to protect yourself.”
State health officials warned that cases would probably occur in the surrounding communities due to the “extremely contagious nature of this disease”.
The Ministry of Health of New Mexico said this week that a teenager who lived in a County bordering Texas was positively tested for measles, although the child had no reported exposure to the Gaines Prefecture epidemic.
