A historic epidemic of measles in western Texas is only 2,000 cases, the Health of the State of Texas announced on Friday, while the number of cases in the neighboring state of the New Mexico has tripled at 30 years.
Most cases in both states are in people under the age of 18 and those who are not vaccinated or who have unknown vaccination status.
Texas health officials have identified 39 new infections of highly contagious disease, which has made the total count in western Texas epidemic at 198 people since its start to the end of January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far.
Last week, a school -aged child died of measles in Texas, the first death of the country's measles in a decade. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that he was sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the epidemic.
New Mexico health officials have been reporting a constant number of cases in the County of Lea – which borders the epidemic of the Texas epidemic for weeks. But on Friday, state health officials provided the Associated Press a week per week who showed that cases had regularly increased by 14 during the week from February 9 to 30 this week.
A spokesperson for the Health Department said that more cases were expected and that many cases reported on Friday were only identified after people have taken their course. The ministry said that he had not been able to prove a clear link to the Texas epidemic, although on February 14, he said that a link was “suspected”.
Thursday, new-mexical health officials confirmed that an unvaccinated adult who died without requesting medical care had been tested positive for measles. The state medical investigator has not announced the official cause of death, but the State Department of Health said on Friday that it was “linked to measles”.
The CDC said on Friday that it also confirmed measles cases in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington. But Texas and New Mexico epidemics compensate most of the country.
The increase in measles cases was a major test for the US Secretary for Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has questioned the safety of infant vaccines. Recently, he stopped recommending that people get the vaccine and promoted unproven treatments for the virus, such as cod liver oil.
Kennedy rejected the Texas epidemic as “not unusual”, although most local doctors in the western region of Texas told the Associated Press that they had never seen a case of measles in their career until this epidemic.
The measles vaccine, mumps and rubella is safe and very effective in preventing infection and serious cases. The first blow is recommended for children aged 12 to 15 months and the second for 4 to 6 year olds.
Infantile vaccination rates across the country have decreased because an increasing number of parents are looking for exemptions from public school requirements for personal or religious reasons. In the county of Gaines, Texas, which holds most of the cases, the rate of vaccination of the measles of kindergarten is 82% – well below the 95% necessary to prevent epidemics.
Many cases of the county of Gaines are in the Mennonite community “, a various county group, under-worn and undervalued, a diversified group which historically had lower vaccination rates and whose members can be wary of government and intervention mandates.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air up to two hours. Up to nine in 10 people likely will obtain the virus if exposed, according to the CDC. Due to the success of the vaccine, the United States considered measles eliminated in 2000.
