The ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas has doubled in size to 48 cases. It's the state's worst in nearly 30 years.

State health officials said Friday in a news release that those who are infected are either unvaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. Thirteen people have been hospitalized.

The cases have been concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Lara Anton said. Gaines County is highly rural, so many of the families send their children to small private schools or are homeschooled, Anton said.

“The church isn’t the reason that they’re not vaccinated,” Anton said. “It’s all personal choice and you can do whatever you want. It’s just that the community doesn’t go and get regular health care.”

    • reddig33@lemmy.world
      18·
      7 days ago

      Remember the episode when 13 of these 48 people ended up in the hospital? That must’ve been the remake — the current measles strains aren’t anything to fuck around with.

      “In the US, 20 percent of people with measles are typically hospitalized. Five percent develop pneumonia, and up to 3 in 1,000 die of the infection. In rare cases, measles can cause a fatal disease of the central nervous system called Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, which develops years after infection. Measles also wipes out immune responses to other infections (a phenomenon known as immune amnesia), making people vulnerable to other infectious diseases.”

      https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/02/texas-measles-outbreak-climbs-to-48-cases-almost-all-kids-13-hospitalized/

    • TinidrilEnglish
      15·
      7 days ago

      Point? And who is telling anyone to “BeEeE aFrAiD!!”. Vaccination is incredibly effective for measles, so most people have nothing to worry about personally. Still, who wants to see kids get an unnecessary disease that hospitalizes 1/4 and kills 1/1000?

      This isn’t fear, it’s just disgust at having one more reason to despise far right morons. These are the same people who will wring their hands and cry “think of the children” for every damn oppressive piece of bullshit legislation they want to pass.