A minor in Texas, southern United States, was the initial casualty of a measles epidemic that affected over 130 individuals, according to health officials on Wednesday.
The State Health Department stated that a school-age child who had not received vaccinations was admitted to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas last week after testing positive for measles.
Since the start of the year, there have been 124 reported cases of measles in western Texas and nine in nearby New Mexico, raising worries about the comeback of this very contagious disease due to a decline in vaccination rates.
Most instances happen in children, with eighteen of them being admitted to hospitals in Texas. The specialist infectious disease doctor Amesh Adalja from Johns Hopkins University warned that while the multiple measles outbreaks in the United States had not resulted in any deaths yet, it was inevitable.
The measles continue to cause over 100,000 deaths globally each year, emphasizing the importance of vaccination in preventing these fatalities.
Gaines County, which has a significant Mennonite community, is the main area affected by the outbreak. Mennonites are a Christian group known for being hesitant about vaccines. In Texas, individuals can opt out of vaccines for reasons related to their beliefs, including religious ones.
The outbreak started at the same time as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the Secretary of Health under Republican President Donald Trump, a role that impacts the nation’s vaccination strategy.
Kennedy, who openly doubted the effectiveness of vaccines, faced scrutiny for connecting the MMR vaccine to autism, a correlation that has been thoroughly debunked by scientific studies.
Highly contagious –
The measles is a highly infectious respiratory virus spread through respiratory droplets or when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes, posing a significant danger to unvaccinated individuals.
Roughly 20% of infected individuals need to be hospitalized during outbreaks, with about 5% developing pneumonia. In rare instances, the illness may lead to brain inflammation and potentially result in death.
The measles can lead to pregnancy complications such as early delivery and low birth weight. In 2023, the CDC recorded 285 measles cases in the United States.
The largest outbreak in recent years happened in 2019, with 1,274 cases primarily affecting Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey, marking the highest number of cases in decades.
Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, it is believed that each year between three and four million Americans contracted the disease, with several hundred fatalities.
Measles was eradicated in the United States in 2000, but outbreaks still occur annually. Globally, the virus continues to be a leading cause of avoidable deaths.