Los Angeles, March 5 (IANS) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is on the ground in the US state of Texas to respond to the growing measles outbreak, the agency said.
The agency in a statement on Tuesday on social media platform X said it has sent some of its Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) “disease detectives” to the West Texas region, the same day the state reported an additional 13 cases, bringing the total to 159.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has reported an outbreak of measles in the South Plains region of Texas. Currently, 159 cases have been identified in the state since late January. Twenty-two of the patients have been hospitalised, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.
There has been one fatality in a school-aged child who lived in the outbreak area. The child was not vaccinated and had no known underlying conditions, according to Texas DSHS.
Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities, said Texas DSHS.
The agency is working with local health departments to investigate the outbreak.
“The measles outbreak in Texas is a call to action for all of us to reaffirm our commitment to public health. By working together — parents, healthcare providers, community leaders, and government officials, we can prevent future outbreaks and protect the health of our nation,” said Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Kennedy last week said the CDC was providing “technical assistance and vaccines” to help with the outbreak, including lab support and sending doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines.
The outbreak has largely spread within a community of Mennonites in Gaines County, who historically have had lower vaccination rates.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy initially downplayed the outbreak during a Cabinet meeting with President Trump last week, saying it was “not unusual” and falsely claiming that many people hospitalised were there “mainly for quarantine”.
He still has not openly encouraged vaccination, though in an op-ed posted on the Fox News website on Sunday he urged parents to talk with their doctors “to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine” while emphasising that the decision to get vaccinated was a “personal one”.
–IANS
int/khz
