Texas health officials have reported an additional eight cases of measles in West Texas, bringing the total number of cases to 717 overall as part of the ongoing outbreak.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, less than 1% – or fewer than 10 – of the confirmed cases are estimated to be actively infectious since their rash onset date was less than a week ago.
So far, two unvaccinated school-aged children have died, along with 93 individuals having been hospitalized so far throughout the outbreak.
Once more, DSHS is warning that, due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and its surrounding communities.
Where are the current measles cases in Texas?
As of May 13, DSHS has designated Cochran, Dallam, Dawson, Gaines, Lamar, Lubbock, Terry, and Yoakum counties as outbreak counties with ongoing measles transmission.
According to DSHS, Garza and Lynn counties have been removed from the list of designated outbreak counties because the last infectious case was 42 days ago, or two incubation periods ago.
Here is the current breakdown of cases by county:
There are an additional 15 cases in Texas not associated with the ongoing outbreak in West Texas in Atascosa, Brazoria, Collin, Denton, Fort Bend, Harris, Rockwall, Shackelford, Travis and Tarrant counties.
DSHS further broke down the case count by age groups:
What are the symptoms of measles?
According to Boston Children’s Hospital, the symptoms of measles are as follows:
According to the hospital, it takes between eight and 12 days for children to develop symptoms of measles, but it can be one to two days before the onset of symptoms and three to five days after the rash develops.
How do you contract measles?
The Mayo Clinic states that healthy people can get the virus whenever an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, and infectious droplets spray into the air, where other people can breathe them in.
The infected droplets can also survive on surfaces for several hours, and healthy people can contract it when touching an infected surface then putting their fingers in their mouth or nose or rubbing their eyes.
“About 90% of people who haven’t had measles or been vaccinated against measles will become infected when exposed to someone with the measles virus,” the clinic reports.
Mateo Rosiles is the Government & Public Policy reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Got a news tip for him? Email him at mrosiles@lubbockonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas measles outbreak impacting 32 counties, continues to rise. Here’s what to know
Reporting by Mateo Rosiles, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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