West Texas

Health care professionals said the only way to prevent measles is to receive two doses of the MMR vaccine. Measles complications can include pneumonia, hearing loss, meningitis, and death.

This brings the West Texas outbreak to 663 cases since its inception in late January.

This brings the West Texas outbreak to more than 600 cases 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.

Some Texas legislators may be done questioning the merits of education savings accounts as it moves to a vote in the State House, but voters aren't. Model programs in other states are showing rural voters could stand to lose the most, and they're preparing to do the math on election day.

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.