Multiple cases have been reported from a day care center in a measles-affected county in Texas, with some of the children affected being too young to have had a complete vaccination, according to public health experts.
There have been 505 confirmed cases of measles in West Texas as of Tuesday, and the number is continuing to rise. This Monday, the state added 10 more counties to the region affected by the epidemic. Health experts have reported that the extremely infectious virus has expanded to Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico since it began to spread in late January.
Two elementary-aged children in Texas were among the three unvaccinated persons who have died this year from complications connected to measles. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., health secretary, attended the burial in Seminole, the outbreak’s core, after the second kid passed away Thursday at a hospital in Lubbock.
Director Katherine Wells of the Lubbock Public Health Department stated that as of Friday, seven instances had been reported at a day care center, where an infectious youngster had infected two other children before spreading it to other classrooms.
Wells stated, “I won’t be surprised if it enters other facilities” due to the high contagiousness of measles.
It is advised to give children the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination between the ages of 4 and 6, and according to Wells, the majority of the 200 children at the day care had already gotten the first dose, which is administered between 12 and 15 months of age.
An infection has developed in other youngsters who have gotten just a single dosage, she added.
Public health officials have revised their recommendations for children in Lubbock County, shifting the first dosage from 1 year of age to 6 months. They also advise that any child who has only had one immunization get the second dose early. According to Wells, a youngster who has not been vaccinated and goes to day care must remain at home for a full 21 days after their last exposure.
Since the epidemic started, the number of cases and hospitalizations in Texas have been rising. From March 28 to April 4, the number of cases jumped by 81.
Two more counties, Borden and Randall, and twenty-four new cases were added to the state’s total on Tuesday. Since Friday, 57 people have been hospitalized, an additional one.
The majority of cases, with 328 as of Tuesday, are in Gaines County, where the virus has been spreading among a tight-knit Mennonite population. With 46, Lubbock County comes in second, followed by neighboring Terry County with 36.
On Monday, CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said that the agency met with Texas authorities to discuss the number of personnel to be sent to West Texas to aid in the response to the epidemic. A smaller group was supposed to show there later this week, and then next week a larger one, according to him.
A second youngster tragically lost their life during the epidemic, just days after the CDC withdrew its first team from the area. The first team had been in the region from early March until April 1.
