The number of measles cases in the U.S. is growing, with most of them clustered in West Texas.
As of the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 164 cases nationwide, 124 of them in Texas and nine in an adjacent New Mexico county. The other 31 were in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City and Rhode Island.
Since the CDC’s last update, the Texas Department of State Health Services has detected more cases in its state.
As of Tuesday, there were 159 cases across Texas, with 107 in Gaines County where the outbreak started, 22 in neighboring Terry County, and the rest spread across seven other Texas counties, most of them also in the state’s western part.
The nine cases known so far in New Mexico all have occurred in Lea County, which sits across the state border from Gaines County.
So far, one person has died from the Texas outbreak, an unvaccinated school-aged child. That death was the first in the U.S. from measles in a decade.
Minors are bearing the brunt of the measles outbreaks. Among the patients whose cases have been reported by the CDC, 55 of them are under 5 years old, 79 are between 5 and 19, 29 are 20 or older, and one is of unreported age.
The CDC recommends taking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to prevent catching measles, with one dose having a 93% efficacy rate and two doses having a 97% efficacy rate. In addition, in communities where 95% or more are vaccinated, most of the unvaccinated benefit from herd immunity.
Among the nine jurisdictions that currently have measles, only in four — California, New Mexico, New York City and Rhode Island — were 95% or more of kindergarteners for the 2023-2024 school year.
The rest were all under the 95% threshold, the lowest being Alaska at 84.3% and Georgia at 88.4%.
Among the 164 cases reported by the CDC, 3% had one MMR vaccine dose, 2% had two doses, and the rest were either unvaccinated or their status was unknown to the CDC.
In Texas, among the cases where the patient’s vaccination status is known, 80 are unvaccinated and five have gotten at least one MMR vaccine dose.
Unvaccinated patients bear the risk of worse symptoms and are more likely to have adverse health outcomes, with 20% of all unvaccinated measles patients ending up in the hospital, according to the CDC.
Common measles symptoms include a cough, runny rose, high fever and red and watery eyes, followed by a rash and visible white spots in the mouth once the other symptoms appear.
