Measles: Texas outbreak spreads to New Mexico

The United States’ official status as a country that has eliminated measles is under renewed threat this year as an outbreak that began in an undervaccinated religious community in west Texas has spread to neighbouring counties and across the state line into New Mexico.

Authorities in Texas reported 10 new cases on 18 February, bringing that state’s total to 58. Eight cases had been reported in New Mexico three days earlier. Just over half of the people affected are schoolchildren. Thirteen of the 58 Texas patients have been admitted to hospital.

While about nine in 10 Americans have received at least one of the two shots that normally comprise measles vaccination, only four of the 58 infected people in Texas have done so. In New Mexico officials said that six of their eight patients were definitely unvaccinated, while two “believed that they were vaccinated.”

Gaines County, where the Texas outbreak began, has one of the state’s lowest immunisation rates for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Just 81% of children at state school kindergartens had vaccination certificates in this school year, far short of the 95% …