Vials of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are displayed on a counter at a Walgreens Pharmacy on January 26, 2015 in Mill Valley, California. An outbreak of measles in Texas and New Mexico has infected more than 160 people, with nine cases in Lea County, New Mexico. Most of the infections have been unvaccinated children. (Photo by Illustration Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The number of measles cases reported in New Mexico remained steady Tuesday, with the New Mexico Department of health still reporting nine infections in Lea County.
None of the infected New Mexico residents have required hospitalization.
Measles infections continue to rise in Texas, where the outbreak first began, with state officials there reporting 159 infections with 22 patients hospitalized. One Texas child has died from disease, the first measles death in a decade.
What is measles?
Measles, one of the most contagious diseases in the world, spreads through contact from an infected person’s coughs and sneezes. The airborne particles can hang around for hours.
Measles symptoms can appear anywhere from one to three weeks after exposure and include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a red spotty rash. Serious complications can develop, including brain swelling, blindness, pneumonia and death.
The best prevention against the measles is getting two doses of the vaccine, according to health officials.
David Shaw, the CEO of Nor-Lea Hospital District in Lovington, said the hospital, if needed, could care for a case of measles, but it would depend on the infection’s severity.
“Nor-Lea does have the ability to provide a quarantine space in the hospital; however, if the patient is critical, they would be transferred to Children’s Hospital in Lubbock where they would have their resources to appropriately care for the patient,” Shaw said in a written statement.
Currently the hospital has “ample supply” of masks, gloves and other protective equipment, Shaw said, and would have enough if a larger outbreak occurred.
Dr. Seth Coombs, a family practitioner and chair of the infection control board at Nor-Lea, treated one of the measles patients, an older man.
He said the hospital is using lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, and is requiring patients to wear masks and is taking their information while patients remain in their cars.
“I feel like a lot of it has been a lot more streamlined, a lot easier, with COVID being so near, we’re just using a lot of the same practices,” Coombs said.
Do I need the shot?
Children under six months, or people who are too immunocompromised cannot receive the measles vaccine, but older adults also may need to additional shots to be fully protected.
Adults older than 20 have higher risks of complications from measles, according to the CDC.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention People advises that people born before 1957 don’t need the shot because they have presumptive immunity. For people vaccinated for measles in the ‘60s, the situation is a little more complicated. According to the CDC, people who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be re-vaccinated. But “people who were vaccinated prior to 1968 with either inactivated (killed) measles vaccine or measles vaccine of unknown type should be revaccinated with at least one dose of live attenuated measles vaccine.”
As such, Coombs’ older patients have been worried about their vaccination status. “If there’s someone who’s unsure, I’d rather be proactive and preventative and get them tested and get them updated on their immunizations, if needed,” he said.
More families are requesting the vaccine, Coombs said.
“It’s a horrible thing to have to go through,” Coombs said of the outbreak. “But it has reinvigorated people to get up to date on their immunizations; I’ve definitely seen an uptick of people coming in.”
The Department of Heath has provided more than 5,000 vaccines in the southeastern portion of the state in the month of February. For more information about DOH’s vaccine clinics or looking up previous vaccine records, go online, or call 1-833-796-8773.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.