A measles outbreak spreading in Texas and New Mexico has sickened at least 99 people, with cases expected to rise amid a nationwide drop in vaccination rates.
Texas’ Department of State Health Services confirmed 90 cases as of Friday. That’s up from 48 cases a week earlier.
Of those 90 cases, 16 were hospitalized, the health department said, and with the exception of five people, all were either unvaccinated or their vaccination status unknown.
“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities,” health officials said.
The highest number of cases, 57, were in Gaines County, which shares a boundary with Lea County, New Mexico.
Nine cases have been confirmed in Lea County as of Monday, a representative with New Mexico’s Department of Health told HuffPost. Five of those cases involve people over the age of 18, and four between 5 and 17.
Measles can be life-threatening for babies and young children.
Cases also have been reported in Alaska, California, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island as of Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reports that 25% of the cases so far this year have resulted in hospitalizations, most among those under the age of 5 or with an age unknown.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has urged residents experiencing symptoms to call for an appointment before entering a public health office to prevent the disease from spreading.
Updates on Texas and New Mexico’s case numbers are expected Tuesday.
Measles, which is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans, was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 thanks to the nation’s high vaccination rate, which followed public health campaigns for the two-shot series measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). People vaccinated with these shots are “considered protected for life against measles and rubella,” the CDC says.
The vaccination rate in the U.S. was near 95% for 10 years before dropping to about 93% starting in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. So-called herd immunity can be reached when more than 95% of a community’s population has been vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Last year, there were 285 cases confirmed nationwide, 42% of which were among children under the age of 5. Of these individuals, 89% were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.
Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb has pointed to a handful of states that have vaccination levels below 90% that could contribute to the disease’s spread.
“When you have this much virus spreading in that portion of Texas and New Mexico, I think that there’s some inevitability that you’re going to see cases exported into those other states where there’s low vaccination rates, and you could see continuous spread across the country,” he said in an interview Sunday with CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
This puts the U.S. at risk of losing its measles elimination status, which he said could have effects like travel advisories and other economic impacts.