Some private schools have shut down because of a rapidly escalating measles outbreak in West Texas. Local health departments are overstretched, pausing other important work as they race to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus.<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak emerged three weeks ago<\/a>, the Texas health department has confirmed 90 cases with 16 hospitalizations, as of Feb. 21. Most of those infected are under age 18. Officials suspect that nine additional measles cases reported in New Mexico, across the border from the epicenter of the Texas outbreak in Gaines, are linked to the Texas outbreak. Ongoing investigations seek to confirm that connection.<\/p>\n Health officials worry they\u2019re missing cases. Undetected infections bode poorly for communities because doctors and health officials can\u2019t contain transmission if they can\u2019t identify who is infected.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the tip of the iceberg,\u201d said Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer for The Immunization Partnership<\/a> in Houston, a nonprofit that advocates for vaccine access. \u201cI think this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.\u201d<\/p>\n An unknown number of parents may not be taking sick children to clinics where they could be tested, said Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas. \u201cIf your kids are responding to fever reducers and you\u2019re keeping hydrated, some people may keep them at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Most unvaccinated people will contract measles if they\u2019re exposed to the airborne virus, which can linger for up to two hours<\/a> indoors. Those infected can spread the disease before they have symptoms. Around 1 in 5 people<\/a> with measles end up hospitalized, 1 in 10 children develop ear infections that can lead to permanent hearing loss, and about 1 in 1,000 children die from respiratory and neurological conditions.<\/p>\n Gaines has a large Mennonite population, which often shuns vaccinations. \u201cWe respect everyone\u2019s right to vaccinate or not get vaccinated,\u201d said Albert Pilkington, CEO of the Seminole Hospital District, in the heart of the county, in an interview with Texas Standard<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s just what it means to be an American, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Local health officials have been trying to persuade the parents of unvaccinated children to protect their kids by bringing them to pop-up clinics offering measles vaccines.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people who were on the fence, who thought measles wasn\u2019t something their kids would see, are recalculating and coming forward for vaccination,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n Local health departments are also operating mobile testing units outside schools in an attempt to detect infections before they spread. They\u2019re staffing clinics that can provide treatment prophylactically for infants exposed to the virus, who are too young for vaccination. Local health officials are advising day care centers on how to protect young children and babies, and educating school nurses on how to spot signs of the disease.<\/p>\n \u201cI am putting 75% of my staff on this outbreak,\u201d Wells said. Although Lubbock isn\u2019t at the center of the outbreak, people infected have sought treatment there. \u201cIf someone infected was in the [emergency room], we need to identify everyone who was in that ER within two hours of that visit, notify them, and find out if they were vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n Local health departments in rural areas are notoriously underfunded<\/a>. Wells said the workload has meant pressing pause on other programs, such as one providing substance abuse education.<\/p>\n Zach Holbrooks, executive director of the South Plains Public Health District, which includes Gaines, said health officials were following CDC guidelines, as of last year, by advising schools to keep unvaccinated children home for 21 days if they shared a classroom or the cafeteria with someone infected. This means that many parents may need to stay home from work to care for their kids.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of private schools have closed down because of a high number of sick children,\u201d Holbrooks said.<\/p>\n The burden of measles outbreaks multiplies as the disease spreads. Curbing a 2018 outbreak in Washington state with 72 cases cost about $2.3 million<\/a>, in addition to $76,000 in medical costs, and an estimated $1 million in economic losses due to illness, quarantines, and caregiving.<\/p>\n Public health researchers expect such outbreaks to become larger and more common because of scores of laws around the U.S. \u2014 pending and recently passed \u2014 that ultimately lower vaccine rates by allowing parents to exempt their children from vaccine requirements at public schools and some private schools.<\/p>\n Such policies are coupled with misinformation about childhood vaccination now platformed at the highest levels of government. The new director of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has erroneously blamed vaccines for autism, pointing to discredited theories<\/a> shown to be untrue<\/a> by more than a dozen scientific<\/a> studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Kennedy\u2019s first week on the job, HHS postponed an important meeting of the CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, without saying when it would resume. In addition, the CDC\u2019s letter template to school principals<\/a>, advising unvaccinated children to remain home from school for 21 days if they\u2019ve been exposed to the measles virus, is no longer on the agency\u2019s website. An old version remains posted on its archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n As a rule, at least 95% of people need to be vaccinated against measles for a community to be well protected. That threshold is high enough to protect infants too young for the vaccine, people who can\u2019t take the vaccine for medical reasons, and anyone who doesn\u2019t mount a strong, lasting immune response to it. Last school year, the number of kindergartners\u00a0exempted from a vaccine<\/a>\u00a0requirement was higher than ever reported before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Gaines, exemptions were far higher than the national average, approaching 20% in 2023-24. Gaines has one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in Texas. At a local public school district in the community of Loop, only 46% of kindergarten students have gotten vaccines that protect against measles.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amid an outbreak that displays the toll of measles in under-vaccinated pockets of America, Texas lawmakers have filed about 25 bills in this year\u2019s legislative session that could limit vaccination further. Lakshaman said the public \u2014 the majority of whom believe in the benefits<\/a> of measles vaccination \u2014 should contact their representatives about the danger of such decisions. Her group<\/a> and others<\/a> offer resources to get involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got children winding up in the hospital, and yet lawmakers who\u2019ve got their blinders on,\u201d she said, referring to pending policies that will erode vaccination rates. \u201cIt\u2019s just mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n