The Texas Department of Health (TDH) has issued an advisory asking Texas doctors and others to be alert for possible cases of measles, especially along the state’s border with Mexico.
Mexico has recorded 64 measles cases this year, including a recent case in Ciudad Acuña across the border from Del Rio, and 44 cases last year. There have been no confirmed cases of measles in Texas since 2002 when one case contracted in China was recorded.
The TDH advisory recommends that some adults and all unvaccinated children 6 months old or older who will be visiting Mexico be vaccinated against measles if they have not had the illness. Vaccination is not recommended for adults who have had the measles, have received two doses of the vaccine or were born before 1957. People born before 1957 when measles was widespread in the United States generally are considered immune.
Standard measles vaccination recommendations call for one dose of the vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age and a second dose at 4 to 6 years of age. But the advisory recommends that children who will be visiting Mexico receive the second dose 28 or more days after the first dose.
The advisory also recommends that children 6 to 11 months old who will be visiting Mexico receive the first dose of vaccine now and a second dose at 12 to 15 months of age. A third dose is recommended for these children when they are 4 to 6 years old.
Measles is a highly contagious viral illness that usually begins with a fever of 100 degrees or higher followed by a cough, runny nose and sometimes watery eyes. A flat red rash usually begins two to four days after the onset of the fever. The rash usually first appears on the face and upper neck before spreading to the back, trunk, arms, legs, hands and feet.
Anyone with these symptoms should receive medical attention. Physicians are required to immediately report suspected cases of measles to public health authorities.
TDH officials said the special recommendations are precautionary and that measles outbreaks in the United States in recent decades usually have been small. But they said complications from measles can include diarrhea, ear infections, pneumonia, seizures, infections of the brain and nervous system and, on rare occasion, death.
Measles is an airborne illness. The virus is usually spread in nose and throat droplets expelled when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Standard disease control measures include frequent hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes. People with fever should not go to work, school or child care facilities.
The measles vaccine is usually given in a form that also includes protection against mumps and rubella. It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to become effective.
(News media: for more information contact Doug McBride, TDH Press Officer, 512-458-7524.)