Texas officials still don’t know how West Texas measles outbreak started

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Texas’ health commissioner told lawmakers Monday they are still trying to determine the origin of a South Plains-Panhandle measles outbreak more than a month after the first patients reported symptoms.

“I cannot link this particular outbreak,” Dr. Jennifer Shuford, who oversees the Texas Department of State Health Services, told the House Committee on Public Health. “We don’t know what the link is.”

During Monday’s hourlong discussion — the first time the Legislature has meaningfully addressed the outbreak in a hearing since the first case was reported in January — Shuford fielded questions about the state’s response, as well as those posed by Republican lawmakers about vaccine risks and whether the cause of the outbreak was due to illegal immigration.

While Gaines County is the center of this outbreak, infections have spread to eight other surrounding counties. Shuford told lawmakers Monday that the number of cases from the outbreak has increased to 158 and that four other measles cases — two in Harris County, one in Rockwall County and one in Travis County — have also been reported but linked to international travel and unrelated to the ongoing outbreak.

State Rep. Mike Olcott, R-Fort Worth, asked Shuford repeatedly if the West Texas outbreak could be tied to the influx of undocumented immigrants into Texas.

“Have you all considered the possibility, because of the enormous surge of foreign nationals coming into this country recently, many of whom, maybe even most of whom, are not vaccinated, that could have been the source of the outbreak?” Olcott said.

Shuford said she had no data pinpointing how the outbreak started.

“For this particular outbreak we don’t know the individual who introduced it into the community or what the risk factor was for bringing it in,” Shuford said.

Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin asked why the biggest outbreak in years was happening now in Texas.

Shuford explained that the elimination of measles depends on a community having an immunization of at least 95% to keep the disease from spreading.

“At 95%, we have what’s called herd immunity,” she said. ”We know when those vaccine levels get lower than 95% that there’s enough unprotected people together to cause an outbreak.”

What happened in Gaines County, she said, was that measles was able to latch onto a community where there were lower immunization rates.

One of the county’s local public school districts with only 143 students, according to 2023-24 school year data, has the highest school vaccine exemption rate in the state — 48% of Loop school district students have conscientious exemptions from required vaccinations. In 2023-24, less than half of all Loop kindergartners — 46% — were given the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, according to state data.

“There’s been some decreased interest or decrease in trust in vaccines and that’s caused a decrease in vaccination rates,” she said.

Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, zeroed in on the amount of vaccine doses — at least 72 — an American child receives by the time they reach their 18th birthday, at the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He questioned whether health agencies should provide better communication about the risks of some vaccines.

Too often, he said, those who question vaccine risks are painted unfairly. “Take every one or you’re an anti-vaxxer,” he said.

He also said vaccine manufacturers bear no risk if someone has an adverse reaction to the shots.

“We don’t do anything other than to tell people you need to get the vaccine, and, oh by the way, the pharmaceutical company has no liability because we have waived that,” Frank said. “It’s a great business model, right? They get to manufacture it. You require it.”

Shuford conceded that it was up to the public health community to better inform the public about vaccines by laying out risks for different risk groups.

“I think that it does make sense and we’re considering ways to communicate about vaccines. Clearly there are so many questions around it and rightfully so,” Shuford said. “And part of it is on us in public health not being able to communicate well about it.

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