Nearly 50 cases of measles have recently been reported in Texas, according to a report from local authorities on Friday, reflecting the resurgence of this highly contagious disease, which had been virtually eradicated thanks to vaccination.
These infections come as vaccination rates in the United States have been declining since the Covid-19 pandemic. And at a time of uncertainty over the policies of the new US Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr., known for his anti-vaccine stance.
A "measles outbreak" is underway "in the South Texas Plains region," the local health department wrote Friday, citing "48 cases" whose "symptoms have appeared within the past three weeks."
Not all people affected by this disease "are vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown," Texas authorities stated. And "thirteen of the patients have been hospitalized."
Almost all of the patients (42) are under 18 years old, including 13 under four years old.
Virtually eradicated in many developed countries, measles has reappeared in recent years due to declining vaccination coverage. In the United States, the proportion of preschool children vaccinated against measles fell from 951 TP3T in 2019 to fewer than 931 TP3T in 2023, with more significant declines locally.
– Exceptions –
The current measles epidemic is taking place in a county with "the lowest vaccination rates in the state," said Amesh Adalja, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University, in an interview with AFP.
While the measles vaccine is mandatory, more and more parents are resorting to "non-medical" exemptions, Terri Burke of the local association The Immunization Partnership, which promotes vaccination, told AFP.
In Texas, as in many other American states, parents can, for example, invoke a religious reason to obtain an exemption.
Last year, 285 cases of measles were reported in the country, according to federal authorities, compared to 59 in 2023. This is a high number, but lower than the 1,274 cases reported in 2019 during an outbreak in unvaccinated Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey.
Before the development of the measles vaccine in the early 1960s, the disease killed hundreds of children each year in the United States and continues to kill tens of thousands worldwide, experts say.
Robert Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly falsely claimed a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism. The study that initiated this theory, published in 1998, turned out to be a hoax, and subsequent research has demonstrated the absence of a link.
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