Health officials concerned as measles outbreak in northwest Texas grows to 159 cases

HOUSTON (CN) — Texas has reported 159 cases of measles in 2025 as part of a growing outbreak in the northwest part of the state, according to state health officials in numbers released Tuesday.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has been following the outbreak in the northwestern part of the state, colloquially known as the Panhandle, since late January, when they first reported two cases in Gaines County.

The vast majority of cases, including one death so far, are in children who are either unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, according to department data — though at least five vaccinated individuals have been infected.

Measles is a highly contagious virus, able to linger in droplets in the air and on surfaces for several hours. Though symptoms usually center around a runny nose, red eyes and rashes, severe infections can cause brain swelling or blindness.

Public health measures around the world had largely kept the disease contained in recent decades, with deaths dropping dramatically since the introduction of vaccines in the 1960s.

But, as the World Health Organization points out, measles vaccination rates have fallen despite the proven safety and efficacy of the vaccine, both in its standalone form and the more common MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.

Dr. Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseases at UTHealth Houston, says when it comes to public health measures around measles, “I think we’re the victims of our own success.”

“Because the vaccines have been so widely successful in the past, we don’t see the disease,” Ostrosky told Courthouse News in a brief interview Monday. “Most people have grown up not seeing a family member or a child with measles, so because we don’t see it, we don’t necessarily think about it anymore. Couple that with a little bit of misinformation about the safety of the vaccine, that’s kind of the perfect storm as to why we’re having low vaccination rates.”

As vaccination rates have fallen below 93% in the U.S., medical professionals like Ostrosky continue to encourage Americans, especially children and younger adults, to get vaccinated if they are not already, and to talk to their healthcare provider.

“If you occupy a closed space with somebody with measles, and you are not immune, odds are you are going to get it,” Ostrosky said.

He explained that measles have an “R number” — an epidemiology term that estimates the amount of cases you expect to see for every case you detect — of 20.

Meaning, Ostrosky said, “for every case you see, you expect it to be transmitted to 20 vulnerable people. To put this in perspective, the R number for Covid-19 is in the range of 2 to 4.”

While the highest level state officials in Texas have remained quiet, local, national and international figures have spoken up in their stead.

Houston and Harris County health officials have rapidly ramped up measles vaccination efforts in anticipation of the Houston Rodeo, which is expected to attract more than 2 million attendees over the three-week event. They have not identified any current cases in the Houston area ahead of the rodeo, after investigations of two possible cases came back negative.

At the national level, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the recently-appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services, called on people to take the outbreak seriously in a FOX News opinion piece on Sunday and an official HHS statement on Monday.

But Kennedy, who came under heavy fire for his anti-vaccine stances prior to his confirmation, did not outright call on people to get the measles vaccine, despite widespread agreement from U.S. and global health officials of the vaccine’s safety.

The U.S. Centers of Disease Control is also monitoring smaller outbreaks in eight other states. As of February 28, the CDC found 164 total cases of measles in the U.S. in 2025, with the Texas outbreak accounting for 146 cases.

The CDC had declared measles eliminated in the United States in 2000, but unvaccinated American travelers have brought the disease back into the country from areas of the world where it remains more common, as happened with two isolated cases in Harris County earlier in January.