The number: 146. That is how many measles cases Texas health officials had counted by Friday, February 28, 2025, up 22 since Tuesday. It is the state’s largest outbreak in nearly 30 years.
The bottom line is that 20 patients are in hospital and one child is dead. The child, unvaccinated and of school age, died Tuesday night. It is the first measles death in the United States since 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The child was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the hospital said the patient did not live in Lubbock County.
By the numbers
The Texas Department of State Health Services says the cases span nine counties. Gaines County alone accounts for 98, centered in West Texas, and the outbreak began there in late January. Of the 146 patients, 79 were unvaccinated, 62 had an unknown vaccination status and only five were confirmed to be vaccinated, according to UPI.
State health spokesperson Lara Anton has said the virus has spread mostly through rural, oil rig-dotted West Texas, with cases concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community. Gaines County has a strong homeschooling and private school community, and nearly 14% of its school-aged children skipped a required dose last school year. Anton said the true number of unvaccinated children is probably much higher, since homeschooled children are not counted in that data. Texas law lets parents claim exemptions from school vaccines on grounds of conscience, including religious belief.
Nationally, the CDC had reported 164 cases for the year as of Thursday, with 20% hospitalized, in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island and Texas.
Fears of wider spread
An infected person traveled to San Marcos and San Antonio over Valentine’s Day weekend and visited the University of Texas at San Antonio campus and local businesses. “It’s very possible that this person could have come in contact with, if not hundreds, thousands of our community residents, as well as visitors,” said Anita Kurian, deputy director of communicable disease at the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. “We are a destination city.”
New Mexico has nine cases in its eastern part. The state health department said there is no connection to the West Texas outbreak, though UPI reported officials there were still working to determine whether the cases are linked.
Dr. Ronald Cook, chief health officer at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, said at a Friday briefing: “It’s not a huge wildfire. It’s going to be a smoldering fire, a tumbleweed fire, for a while until we finally get it stopped and put out.” Patients in hospital, mostly children, are extremely dehydrated or have serious trouble breathing, he said.
Katherine Wells, Lubbock’s director of public health, said most of that community is vaccinated. “I do expect to see additional cases,” she said. “I’m very nervous about getting a measles case in a school or a day care.”
Washington weighs in
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic, said Wednesday that the outbreak was “not unusual.” By Friday afternoon he posted on X that his heart went out to affected families and that he recognized “the serious impact of this outbreak on families, children, and healthcare workers.” He said his agency will keep funding Texas’ immunization program and that ending the outbreak is a “top priority.”
The MMR vaccine is safe and highly effective, with two doses 97% effective at preventing the disease. The first shot is recommended at 12 to 15 months and the second at 4 to 6 years. Measles can survive in the air for up to two hours.
Sources
- Texas measles cases rise to 146 in an outbreak that led to a child's death
- Measles cases in western Texas rise to 146, possibly spreading to other areas
Sources
- Texas measles cases rise to 146 in an outbreak… – ABC13 Houston
- Measles cases in western Texas rise to 146, possibly spreading to…
