Texas health

The Texas outbreak is nearing 600 cases since January.

Fifty-eight patients have been hospitalized since the outbreak began in late January.

The measles outbreak in West Texas didn't happen just by chance. Health officials say the easily preventable disease has ripped through communities sprawling across more than 20 Texas counties in part because health departments were starved of the funding needed to run vaccine programs.

With cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Texas and other states will have to spend more on public health. The biggest expense of a measles outbreak is the public health response in shutting down the outbreak.

Two measles cases have been reported at Fort Bliss and in the city of El Paso; Juárez reports four cases.

The Texas Department of State Health Services on Tuesday confirmed 24 more cases of measles since last Friday.

Texas keeps public in the dark on its agencies actions or inactions in child abuse and neglect deaths

About 500 Texans, mostly young unvaccinated children, have contracted the disease. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the West Texas town that has been the epicenter of the outbreak.

Katherine Wells was celebrated early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then public health became a political litmus test.

HB 2193 assesses how claims benefit advisors are distributed across the state, and HB 1965 explores ways to improve mental health services for veterans.