With 10 Measles Cases Confirmed in Texas, 2019 Has Already Surpassed Last Year

There have been 10 confirmed cases of measles in Texas this year, surpassing all of 2018, health officials said Wednesday. The most recent case is an adult who was visiting Guadalupe County from the Philippines, where there is a measles outbreak, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. So far this year, four cases have been confirmed in Harris County and one each in Denton, Galveston, Jefferson, Montgomery and Bell counties. At least five of the cases involve children.There were nine confirmed cases of measles in Texas last year, including six in Ellis County. In each of the three years prior to that, only one case was recorded. That lull in cases followed an outbreak of 27 confirmed instances of measles in 2013 and 10 cases in 2014, according to state health data.The Texas health department has issued an alert to remind health care providers to consider measles when they are making a diagnosis and to immediately report the suspected cases."Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness transmitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes virus particles into the air," the health department said in a written statement. "It's so contagious that if one person is sick and spreading measles, nine out of 10 people around them who aren't immune will get it, too."Nationwide, there have been 206 cases of measles reported in 11 states through the end of February, including six outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more cases. There have been 71 confirmed cases in Washington, the most of any state this year.  Continue reading...