The outbreak in Texas may be over, but as vaccination rates continue to drop, officials caution “I don’t think this is the end at all”
NEED TO KNOW
- Texas officials have declared the end of the state’s measles outbreak — which began in January — as Colorado announced a new measles cases and exposure at the Denver International Airport
- Measles is airborne and highly contagious: “Experts estimate that if one person in a room of unvaccinated people has measles, nine out of 10 people in the room will catch it,” Cleveland Clinic says
- Experts are concerned about falling vaccination rates and the possibility measles cases will spike again in the colder months
Texas has declared its ongoing outbreak of measles over — as health officials in Colorado confirm passengers at the Denver International Airport may have been exposed to the highly contagious disease.
Officials said they were “reporting the end of this year’s measles outbreak centered in West Texas,” the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a Tyesday, Aug. 18 statement, citing that more than 42 days have passed since any new cases have been reported.
There were 762 confirmed cases of measles during the outbreak, which began in late January. More than two-thirds of the cases were in children, officials said, and there were two fatalities — both in children.
The Colorado Department of Public Health confirmed on the same day a new case of measles in a resident of Mesa County — and that a second individual with measles traveled through Denver International Airport. The “out-of-state traveler with a confirmed case of measles arrived at gate C51 and boarded another flight at gate C50 on the C Concourse at DEN on Tuesday, Aug. 12,” health officials said…