The measles outbreak in West Texas has slowed down, according to state health officials.
The Texas department of Health and Human Services has been reporting case numbers every Tuesday and Friday since the outbreak started in January of this year. This Tuesday, the department listed 742 confirmed cases. For the first time the outbreak started, no new cases were recorded for the Friday update this week.
Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the caseload has consistently slowed down related to this outbreak.
“We appear to be at the downward end of this curve for this particular outbreak in West Texas,” she said. “We know that there are lots of measles transmitting all over the United States and around the world. And so it just takes one person to get into an under vaccinated community to cause another outbreak. But thankfully, this large outbreak that we’ve been tracking in West Texas does seem to be on the decline.”
Throughout this year, a few cases have popped up in other parts of the state – some that can be connected to international travel, and others that are harder to trace.
“Those are called broken chains of transmission. And so we think that a lot of those actually are related to the outbreak in West Texas and we’re just not able to track it back,” she said. “Measles is so contagious, and it can hang in the air for two hours after a person has been in a space. And so it is hard for us to always know who passed measles to whom.”
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However, individual cases are less of a risk to the entire community if vaccination rates are high. Shuford said vaccination remains the most effective way to protect yourself from measles, and the state was able to increase vaccination coverage rates during this outbreak.
“We focus a lot on vaccination, and we have been able to increase vaccines all across the state during this time period with messaging that’s been pushed out by our agency, but also local health departments and care providers all across the state,” she said. “However, there are some people that really don’t want to get that measles vaccine.
“And in those cases, our messages have been to get to a physician or to the hospital early if there’s warning signs of severe disease. And so in those cases, we’re just trying to keep people from getting really sick and dying from measles.”
The outbreak hit the hardest in Gaines County, which is home to a Mennonite community with one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates in the country. Shuford said this has been a good reminder that public health officials need to build relationships with communities across the state.
“Sometimes we haven’t been great at that,” she said. “And so [we are] really trying to strengthen our messaging at all times and so that we already have a relationship with different communities. The vaccines are just such an instrumental way for us to maintain a healthy society that can be productive. And so we’ll continue to try to get that message out.”
