LUBBOCK, Texas -- As Texas faces its worst measles outbreak in years, EverythingLubbock.com spoke with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Duke Appiah Ph.D, to understand what's behind the resurgence.
A decrease in measles vaccination rates -- potentially due to misinformation, barriers to healthcare access and global travel -- could be contributing to the outbreak, Dr. Appiah explained.
Nearly 40 million children worldwide missed a measles vaccine dose in 2023, according to the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) also stated U.S. childhood vaccination rates fell to 93 percent in the 2021-2022 school year, below the 95 percent needed for herd immunity.
"It's not a great drop, but it depends on the vaccination as well... if you look at the data, you see that even nationally there has been a drop in most states for some of the vaccines," Dr. Appiah said.
However, he stressed that not all unvaccinated individuals are hesitant or misinformed.
"Especially with Texas the outbreak that we have there's something that we haven't put much emphasis on...if we are looking at where it started from Gaines County the epicenter of the outbreak and then spreading, most of these places the people have to travel long distances to get healthcare to even get a vaccine," Dr. Appiah said. "So sometimes we may think that people are not being vaccinated simply because they don't want to, have been misinformed or are maybe skeptical. That's always there but also sometimes people may be willing, but it's not easy to take all these vaccines at the required time."
Another challenge, Dr. Appiah said, is that people who have never seen a person with measles may not even be motivated to get the vaccine.
"But as we give more education, we see that people will be more informed thus also making it easier for people to get [the vaccine] I believe this will also be very helpful," Appiah said. "I'm also hoping that at least this outbreak will bring the awareness that we need to do our best as a community and as public health agencies to get vaccines closer to people in rural communities."
Spread cannot be prevented by quarantine or restricting people because even before the major fever and rash shows up people are contagious. That said, global travel is a factor health officials are eyeing amid the outbreak.
"Traveling to other parts of the world where measles is more endemic I will say is the number one reason for its transmission over the years to the United States," Dr. Appiah said.
The CDC reports that 1 in 5 people who get measles end up hospitalized, and 1-3 out of every 1,000 infected children will die from complications.
"The mortality due to measles is kind of low, however that doesn't mean that it's disease that we can just disregard. It's not just about preventing the disease, but also preventing mortality as well," said Dr. Appiah. "It can be prevented by simply vaccinating in time."
He explained the measles virus hasn't mutated as much as other viruses change for us to keep up with it such as the flu, but the measles the vaccine has been around for decades, and has been tried and tested.
Dr. Appiah concluded by stating that improving access to vaccines and educating the public further are key to stopping the spread and potential deaths.