The West Texas measles outbreak continues to spread. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported on Tuesday that 223 cases have been identified since late January. Twenty-nine of the patients have been hospitalized. And there has been one fatality—a school-aged child who lived in the outbreak area. The child was not vaccinated and had no known underlying conditions.
We are now learning that it was a 6-year-old girl who died, based on the reporting of Tom Bartlett, an Austin-based journalist with The Atlantic. Barlett reports that he encountered the child's father while reporting on the outbreak in Seminole in Gaines County.
This has been the hub of the measles outbreak. According to The Texas Department of State Health Services, there are now 156 confirmed measles cases in Gaines County, which had a population of 7,231 in 2023.
Bartlett reports that the child was a member of congregation of Mennonites, a Christian sect that has been hit hard by the measles outbreak in rural areas. The community is generally suspicious of vaccinations.
According to public health experts, the best way to prevent getting sick is to be immunized with two doses of a vaccine against measles, which is primarily administered as the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are highly effective at preventing measles.
Due to the low vaccination rates and highly contagious nature of this disease, additional measles cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities.
Guest:
Tom Bartlett is an Austin-based journalist with The Atlantic magazine.
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This interview will be recorded on Thursday, March 13, 2025.
