Around 7.5% of kindergarten students in 2013 had parents or guardians who sought exemptions for at least one vaccine. Fast forward a decade, and this figure has surged to over 17.5%, ranking as one of the highest rates in all of Texas as per state health records. Concurrently, in neighboring New Mexico, reports indicate at least nine confirmed cases in Lea County, which shares a border with Texas, as revealed by a state Department of Health representative in a statement to ABC News last Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have independently verified 14 cases in five states thus far in the current year, not taking into account the recent occurrences in Texas and New Mexico or the newly confirmed instances in Georgia.
Echoing the local outbreaks, all nationally confirmed cases involve individuals who are either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination statuses. Measles stands out as one of the most highly transmissible diseases among humans, with a single infected individual capable of transmitting measles to up to nine out of ten susceptible close contacts, per data from the CDC.
Furthermore, health authorities have been emphatically urging individuals who lack vaccination to promptly receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. The CDC presently recommends a two-dose vaccination regimen, with the initial dose administered between ages 12 and 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years of age. One dose is reported to be 93% effective, while two doses boost effectiveness to 97%.
In the decade preceding the introduction of the measles vaccine, an estimated 3 to 4 million people were afflicted annually, according to data from the federal health agency.
The measles outbreak in Texas has now escalated to 90 cases, marking the largest outbreak in over three decades as reported on abcnews.go.com.
