Double Nine unvaccinated people hospitalized as Texas measles outbreak doubles All 24 cases are in unvaccinated people, 22 of which are under age 17. Beth Mole Feb 12, 2025 3:13 pm | 13 Child with measles. Credit: Getty | _jure Child with measles. Credit: Getty | _jure Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAn outbreak of measles in one of Texas' least vaccinated counties continues to rapidly expand, with officials reporting 24 cases Tuesday, up from just nine confirmed on Friday.According to an update by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), all 24 cases identified in the two-week-old outbreak are in unvaccinated people. Nine of the patients (37.5 percent) required hospitalization.Most of the cases are in children. DSHS provided an age breakdown that listed six cases as being in infants and young children between the ages of 0 and 4. This is the age group most vulnerable to measles because they have a heightened risk of complications from the disease and may be too young to be fully vaccinated with the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine. Children are recommended to get two doses of the MMR vaccine, one between 12 and 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years. One dose of MMR vaccine is estimated to be 93 percent effective against measles, while two doses are 97 percent effective.Of the remainder of the 24 cases, 16 were between the ages of 5 and 17, and two were 18 or older.All of the identified cases are in Gaines County, which sits at the border of New Mexico and is around 90 miles southwest of Lubbock, Texas. Gaines has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state and also one of the highest rates of kindergartners with "conscientious exemptions" to school vaccination requirements. In the 20232024 school year, just about 82 percent of kindergartners in Gaines were up to date on routine childhood vaccines, including MMR. That's significantly below the target of 95 percent, the level required to prevent infectious diseases from spreading onward in a community.In line with the low vaccination rate, nearly 18 percent of kindergartners in Gaines have conscientious exemptions from required vaccinations, which are exemptions based on reasons of conscience, including a religious belief.In an interview with Ars Technica last week, Zach Holbrooks, the executive director of the South Plains Public Health District (SPPHD), which includes Gaines, said that the area has a large religious community that has expressed vaccine hesitancy.Additional cases likelyPockets of the county have yet lower vaccination rates than the county-wide averages suggest. For instance, one independent public school district in Loop, in the northeast corner of Gaines, had a vaccination rate of 46 percent in the 20232024 school year.Measles is one of the most infectious diseases known. The measles virus spreads through the air and can linger in the airspace of a room for up to two hours after an infected person has left. Ninety percent of unvaccinated people who are exposed will fall ill with the disease, which is marked by a very high fever and a telltale rash. Typically, 1 in 5 unvaccinated people with measles in the US end up hospitalized and 1 in 20 develop pneumonia. Between 1 to 3 in 1,000 die of the infection. In rare cases, it can cause a fatal disease of the central nervous system called Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis later in life. Measles can also wipe out immune responses to other infections (a phenomenon known as immune amnesia), making people vulnerable to other infectious diseases."Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities," the state health department said.While Gaines is remarkable for its low vaccination rate, vaccination coverage nationwide has slipped in recent years as vaccine misinformation and hesitancy have taken root. Overall, vaccination rates among US kindergartners has fallen from 95 percent in the 20192020 school year into the 92 percent range in the 2023-2024 school year. Vaccine exemptions, meanwhile, have hit an all-time high. Health experts expect to see more vaccine-preventable outbreaks, like the one in Gaines, as the trend continues.Beth MoleSenior Health ReporterBeth MoleSenior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technicas Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 13 Comments