The outbreak at the epicenter of measles cases reaching a multi-decade high in the U.S. has officially ended, according to Texas health authorities.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) declared the outbreak centered in West Texas over as of Monday, Aug. 18, saying that it had been more than 42 days, or two incubation periods, since a new case was reported in the counties that previously showed ongoing transmission.
As of Aug. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a total of 1,356 confirmed measles cases across 40 states since the beginning of the year, resulting in three confirmed deaths and 171 hospitalizations. The majority of those cases, 92%, were in people who were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccine status.
In Texas, 762 cases were confirmed in total as of Aug. 18, with more than two-thirds occurring in children. More than 94% of cases were in unvaccinated people, according to state DSHS data. Two school-aged children, a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old, died in the state during the outbreak.
Texas county at center of largest outbreak in over 20 years
Gaines County accounted for more than 54%, or 414, of total Texas cases, many of which were focused in the tight-knit Mennonite community in the area, as previously reported by USA TODAY.
Gaines, which has three school districts that are all public, had an abnormally high conscientious (non-medical) vaccine exemption rate of 13.6% in grades K-12 for the 2023-2024 school year, one of the highest in Texas, state health data shows. This was more than five times the statewide average of 2.5%.
While Gaines was ground zero, 32 outbreaks (defined as three or more related cases) were recorded across states by the CDC this year, as compared to 16 outbreaks in 2024. Outside of Texas, many pockets of infection were concentrated in nearby states, including New Mexico and Kansas.
Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease that had been considered eradicated in the United States as of 2000, meaning there was no spread and new cases were those contracted only from abroad. But vaccinations have declined, resulting in a growing number of states no longer reporting rates consistent with herd immunity, and infections have returned.
The last outbreak of a similar scale occurred in 2019, when 1,274 cases were confirmed across the country.
What is measles and how do you get it?
Measles is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease caused by a virus that primarily, and most severely, afflicts children. According to the World Health Organization, it infects the respiratory tract before spreading throughout the body.
The virus is one of the most contagious infectious diseases; so contagious, in fact, that 90% of unvaccinated people who are exposed end up contracting it. Additionally, 1 in 5 of those people end up hospitalized, according to the CDC.
The MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) protects against measles with a 97% efficacy rate and is typically given to children as part of the regular vaccine course at ages 12 to 15 months for the first dose and ages 4 to 6 for the second.
What are the symptoms of measles?
According to the CDC, measles symptoms appear seven to 14 days after contact with the virus and typically include high fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes. Measles rashes appear three to five days after the onset of the first symptoms.
Other signs and symptoms of measles include:
Reddish-brown rash that can spread across the entire body
When the rash appears, a person’s fever may spike to more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit
High fever
Cough
Runny nose and sneezing
Red, watery eyes
Loss of appetite, diarrhea
Koplik spots, tiny white spots that may appear inside the mouth two to three days after symptoms begin
Small raised bumps may also appear on top of the flat red spots (the spots may become joined together as they spread from the head to the rest of the body)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas declares measles outbreak over after more than 700 state cases
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