NBC News did some reporting on the growing measles outbreak in West Texas.
On Friday, the number of confirmed cases rose to 49, up from 24 earlier in the week, the state health department said. The majority of those cases are in Gaines County, which borders New Mexico.
Most cases are in school-age kids, and 13 have been hospitalized. All are unvaccinated against measles, which is one of the most contagious viruses in the world.
The latest measles case count likely represents a fraction of the true number of infections. Health officials — who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak — suspect 200 to 300 people in West Texas are infected but untested, and therefore not part of the state’s official tally so far.
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The city of Seminole is the seat of Gaines County, Texas, and the epicenter of the current measles outbreak. It’s located in a vast, flat region filled with ranchers and peanut and cotton farmers.
There’s also a large Mennonite population, a religious sect that believes in “total separation from the outside world,” according to the Texas State Historical Association. These Mennonites chose to settle in Gaines County, in part, for its lack of regulation on private schools. This includes vaccine mandates.
As of the 2023-24 school year, Gaines County had one of the state’s highest vaccine exemption rates, at nearly 18%, according to health department data.
“We have a high, high number of unvaccinated,” said Tonya Guffey, the chief nursing officer at Seminole District Hospital. “It’s not that they’re not educated. It’s just what their belief is.”
Guffey noted that many of the unvaccinated people in the area were Mennonite. “We educate, we encourage, we do what we can for the community, but it’s their choice,” she said.
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Measles cases were limited to rural areas surrounding Lubbock, Texas, the largest city in the region, until Friday afternoon, when Lubbock Public Health confirmed its first case.
The “hub” city, as it’s nicknamed, is where all of the big grocery and big box stores are.
People who live in Gaines County regularly head into Lubbock to shop and do other business. That includes a large number of unvaccinated people who may have been exposed to measles.
“Communities who don’t vaccinate are not necessarily isolated to their area. They commute to Lubbock,” said Dr. Ana Montanez, a pediatrician at Texas Tech Physicians in Lubbock. “By doing that, they’re taking the disease with them.”
Several of Montanez’s young patients were exposed recently, she said, one just by sitting in the same clinic waiting room with another child who was later confirmed to have measles. That child had traveled from another county for care.
As of our last update, the number was 48, but in reality it’s a lot higher as this story notes. Not everyone is showing symptoms or gotten formally diagnosed yet. Per the Statesman, the breakdown of where the known cases are now is as follows:
Gaines – 42 cases
Lubbock – 1 case
Lynn – 1 case
Terry – 3 cases
Yoakum – 2 cases
Plus the two from Houston, which again has thankfully remained at two. Per the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 42 of the 49 cases so far are in children. But these numbers are just for Texas. As of the weekend, measles are now in New Mexico.
On Friday, New Mexico officials declared an outbreak in Lea County, just across state lines from Texas’ Gaines County. Two adults tested positive for measles, with three total cases this week. The first case, an unvaccinated teenager in Lea County, had no recent travel history and no known exposure to the Texas cases, raising alarms about measles spreading undetected.
While officials believe there’s a connection to the Texas outbreak, it’s still unconfirmed.
“We are investigating every suspected case, and we encourage sick individuals with symptoms consistent with measles to seek medical care,” Dr. Chad Smelser, deputy state epidemiologist for New Mexico’s health department, said in a statement.
New Mexico officials are notifying people possibly exposed to measles. Areas where people could have been exposed include an elementary school, two grocery stores, a church, a pharmacy and a hospital.
And again, measles is extremely contagious. It lingers in the air and survives for hours on surfaces. Get vaccinated or get sick, those are the choices. The Associated Press has more.
Nature will find a way to rid the world of its unvaccinated or unimmunized inhabitants. Just a matter of time.
C. L., those who will die or suffer lifelong disability will most likely be children, who will have had no choice about getting vaccinated.
Then blame the parents or legal guardians, etc. Listen, you can’t complain about equality and equal rights and freedom to chose X, then bitch-n-gritch when someone else who, choosing the same thing you championed, opts to pursue their own path that for whatever reason, didn’t/doesn’t coincide with your beliefs.
Children, for most the part, are prone to suffering needlessly through no fault of their own, but that doesn’t make your belief system superior to theirs or theirs parents – it just makes it different. Sad, but true.
I believe in science, and since science is based on observation of experimentation and the results of experimentation, it is in fact superior to ‘belief systems’ based on faith, gut feelings, or misinformation. The system of scientific investigation has brought us cures for diseases, the wonders of space travel and satellite telescopes, electric power from sunshine, etc., etc., etc. In the late 1800’s parents often chose to have many children since it was likely half of them would die in childhood from common diseases. Thanks to scientists and the belief system of science that is not true anymore.
Childhood vaccinations serve to improve life for everyone, that is why we have them. So I will disagree with your right to ignore the rules and bring your child, who is carrying a disease as a result, to work or school or church and make other people sick.
As the old adage goes, your right to swing your arms ends where my nose begins.