The Texas Department of State Health Services has reported an outbreak of measles in Gaines County among unvaccinated schoolchildren with the symptoms that started in the last two weeks. This comes after the Houston Health Department confirmed two cases of measles in Harris County residents—the first measles cases reported in the state since 2023.

A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level.

Gaines County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state of Texas and has among the highest rates of children with "conscientious exemptions" to school vaccination requirements.

Elsewhere, the Georgia Department of Public Health today reported two more measles cases in unvaccinated Atlanta residents. In a statement, the group said the patients are family members of a case confirmed in January.

Two of the four cases are in Lubbock, which hasn’t seen a case in more than 20 years. Measles vaccination rates in Texas have fallen over the last four years.

Public health practitioners warn that measles outbreaks like the one hitting children in Texas will become more common because of scores of laws around the United States — pending and passed — that ultimately lower vaccine rates.

A measles outbreak is growing in a Texas county with dangerously low vaccination rates. In late January, two school-age children from Gaines County were hospitalized with measles. Since an estimated 1 in 5 people with the disease end up in the hospital,