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highplainsdem

(54,802 posts)
Fri Feb 7, 2025, 11:18 PM Feb 7

Measles outbreak expands in West Texas around county with low vaccination rate

Source: CNN

A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level.

In late January, two children in Gaines County were hospitalized for measles. On Wednesday, the state health department shared in a health alert that the number of confirmed cases had grown to six.

As of Friday afternoon, the outbreak has jumped to 14 confirmed cases and six probable cases among people who are symptomatic and had close contact with infected individuals, Zach Holbrooks, executive director of the South Plains Public Health District, told CNN.

Investigations are ongoing, as cases have been identified in parts of the region that are outside the Gaines County lines where the first cases were reported.

-snip-


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/07/health/west-texas-measles-outbreak/index.html

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Aristus

(69,349 posts)
3. Measles is easily survivable.
Fri Feb 7, 2025, 11:36 PM
Feb 7

The potential sequelae, Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis, not so much.

If you enjoy watching your children die in agony, you anti-vaxxers chose well.

HappyLarge

(46 posts)
9. Surviving measles means your immune system "library" is wiped out.
Sat Feb 8, 2025, 02:01 AM
Feb 8

So, you are now susceptible to all the diseases you previously had some immunity to. Risk of death in the first year after measles from other infectious diseases jumps something fierce.

NickB79

(19,806 posts)
13. Yep. Immune amnesia
Sat Feb 8, 2025, 05:35 PM
Feb 8
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211112-the-people-with-immune-amnesia

Enter "immune amnesia", a mysterious phenomenon that's been with us for millennia, though it was only discovered in 2012. Essentially, when you're infected with measles, your immune system abruptly forgets every pathogen it's ever encountered before – every cold, every bout of flu, every exposure to bacteria or viruses in the environment, every vaccination. The loss is near-total and permanent. Once the measles infection is over, current evidence suggests that your body has to re-learn what's good and what's bad almost from scratch.

turbinetree

(25,910 posts)
4. I wonder if the Texans ever heard of or read about one Andrew Wakefield and the reporter that found out about
Fri Feb 7, 2025, 11:38 PM
Feb 7

what this "guy" has done and really basically continues to do........and how RFK jr is linked to this "guy" ................

The Doctor Who Fooled the World
Science, Deception, and the War on Vaccines
Brian Deer
Publication Date
September 29, 2020

turbinetree

(25,910 posts)
15. Yepper.............and now two of the counties in that state have a measles outbreak...........let me see..........
Sat Feb 8, 2025, 07:48 PM
Feb 8

if these two Texas counties in that state know the answer to this question.............
2+2= ?

Comrade Citizen

(220 posts)
5. This is Mennonite Country
Fri Feb 7, 2025, 11:48 PM
Feb 7

Gaines County is home to mostly Mexicans and Mennonites from Bolivia, Mexico, and Canada. Low German and Spanish are the main languages. They don't trust the english world including medicine. They are a hardworking peaceful kind group.

Karasu

(730 posts)
7. Something is going to become a pandemic, whether it's measles, the avian flu, or something else entirely.
Sat Feb 8, 2025, 01:57 AM
Feb 8

This idiot country is doing everything in its power to ensure it, with no means of fighting back. The only conclusion I can come to for a lot of this administration's decisions is that they want to kill off most of the population in their penny--pinching pursuit of so-called "government efficiency."

vercetti2021

(10,442 posts)
8. Natural selection
Sat Feb 8, 2025, 01:58 AM
Feb 8

If you don't want to get vaccinated then I don't give a fuck if you die but I hate the fact that kids got to suffer because their parents are full-blown fucking idiots

4catsmom

(598 posts)
11. thoughts and prayers
Sat Feb 8, 2025, 07:59 AM
Feb 8

that's the only treatment the Trump admin. will get behind. West Texas is Republican country so I wouldn't be surprised if all their kids succumb to easily treated diseases

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