Measles continues to spread in West Texas and New Mexico….

The Federal Health Sec. one RFK Jr.,  says the problem is due to ‘poor diet and health’.….

 

The Texas outbreak began in late January, when local health officials reported two cases in Gaines County, a rural agricultural area on the western edge of the state.

The outbreak quickly escalated. Measles has spread into neighboring counties and infected at least 223 people as of Tuesday, including 29 people who have been hospitalized and an unvaccinated young child who died, the first such death in the United States in a decade.

New Mexico also declared an outbreak in Lea County, which borders Gaines County. While the cases in New Mexico have not officially been connected to the Texas outbreak, officials have said they are “undoubtedly related.”…

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In both states, most measles cases have spread among people who are unvaccinated or with unknown vaccine status.

For years, Gaines County has had low childhood vaccination rates, largely because of the area’s large Mennonite community. While there is no religious doctrine that explicitly forbids vaccines, the insular Christian group has historically avoided interacting with the health care system and has a long tradition of using home remedies and supplements.

Roughly 82 percent of the kindergarten students in the county had received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination, or M.M.R., last year, which is far below the 95 percent coverage needed to prevent outbreaks in a community.

Texas public schools require children to have received certain vaccines, including the M.M.R. shot, but parents can apply for an exemption for “reasons of conscience,” including religious beliefs. Last year, Gaines County had one of the highest exemption rates in the state….

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The virus also causes “immune amnesia,” making the body unable to defend itself against illnesses it has already been exposed to and leaving patients more susceptible to future infections.

Once someone is infected with the virus, doctors have little control over how serious a measles infection becomes — there is no antiviral for measles to stop its spread in the body, only “supportive care” to help manage symptoms. That’s why experts recommend that people get two doses of the M.M.R. vaccine, which are 97 percent effective at preventing infection.

Measles was officially declared eliminated — which means the virus is not continually spreading — in 2000, in large part because of aggressive vaccination campaigns. Experts now fear that status may be at risk, as childhood vaccination rates have been falling nationally….

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