Texas South Plains

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.

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

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.

Measles complications can include pneumonia, hearing loss, meningitis, and death.

That raised the number of confirmed cases since January to 309, with 40 patients hospitalized, though the state does not report how many of those have already been released.

Public health experts say Texas needs better messaging on vaccinations and quarantining and more people conducting contact tracing to contain the spread.