State health officials have declared an end to the measles outbreak that sickened at least 762 people in West Texas. Two unvaccinated school-age children died of the virus.
Public health officials consider a measles outbreak to be over after 42 days with no new cases. That period is double the disease’s maximum incubation time — the longest period it can take from exposure until illness.
“As far as we can tell based on available data, the outbreak has really ended in Texas,” says Amy Edwards, MD, an infectious disease expert at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.
“Still, I would expect outbreaks like this to happen with increasing frequency in the future, as more parents may opt to forgo childhood vaccination,” says Dr. Edwards, who also serves as an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.
Measles Has Not Disappeared
Even though the West Texas outbreak has ended, measles continue to cause illness in other parts of the country.
Protection Against a Measles Resurgence
While the end of the West Texas outbreak is encouraging, William Schaffner, MD, an infectious-disease specialist and a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, warns that trouble could still be on the horizon.
“This is a time of year when measles can tend to be low, in part because children are out of school,” he says. “Now that kids are heading back to class, we will see if there are areas where the measles have been smoldering, and if there may be a burst of transmission.”
Vaccination programs in the United States have kept measles from becoming an epidemic, but outbreaks could grow bigger in the future if the population doesn’t keep up with immunizations on a large scale, Dr. Schaffner says.
“The vaccine is brilliantly effective,” he says. “If you get the appropriate two doses, it can give you lifetime protection. It’s also been used by millions of people around the globe, proving to be extremely safe.”
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