Measles cases in Texas rise to 683, state health department says

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By Sriparna Roy

(Reuters) -Measles cases in Texas rose 3% to 683 over three days, the state’s health department reported on Friday, as nationwide cases of the childhood disease approach the 1,000-mark.

As of May 1, a total of 935 confirmed measles cases were reported by 30 jurisdictions, with 12 outbreaks reported this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.

Researchers have warned that the country is at a tipping point for the return of endemic measles, a quarter century after the disease was declared eradicated in the country.

Cases in Gaines County, the center of the outbreak, was 396, same as its last update, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.

“There is a slight reduction in the number of new cases and so we do see some slowing, but it’s important to note that what we’re seeing is not a single outbreak,” said Caitlin Rivers, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

While outbreaks in some counties may be waning, others are just “beginning to heat up”, so the overall case numbers “doesn’t really tell the whole story,” she added.

Eighty nine patients have been hospitalized, over the course of the outbreak, the health department said.

New Mexico’s health department reported 67 cases on Friday, one more case from its last update. Most of the state’s cases are from Lea County, adjacent to Gaines County in Texas.

Illinois health officials on Wednesday confirmed two measles cases in Cook County.

U.S. pediatricians and infectious disease experts say the fight against rising measles cases nationwide is being hampered by a lack of forceful advocacy for vaccination from government health officials and statements on unproven treatments that are confusing parents.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)