Thursday, the county on the north border of Stevens in Grant County; We also reported three confirmed caseswas also linked to Stephens’ first case. Grant County is in a much better position to handle the outbreak than its neighbors. One school district, Ulysses, reported vaccinations for 100% of kindergarten children from 2023 to 2024.
Risk of occurrence
So far, details of cases that are rising rapidly have been scarce. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has not released another press release on the incident since March 13th. ArsTechnica contacted KDHE for more details but did not respond before the publication of this story.
Outlet kwch12 news from Wichita released the story on Thursdaywho said that when only six cases were reported in Just Grant and Stevens counties, all six were in people who had not been vaccinated and no one was hospitalized. On Friday, KWCH updated its story to note that the case count increased to 10 and that the health department believes the situation is occurring.
Measles is a highly infectious virus It can remain Up to 2 hours on airspace and surface After the infected person was in the area. Of those who have not been vaccinated who have been exposed to the virus, 90% will be infected.
Vaccination rates have slipped across the country, losing herd immunity, creating vulnerable pockets against rapidly spreading, difficult-to-stop outbreaks. In the past, strong vaccination rates hindered such spread, and in 2000 The virus was declared eliminatedmeaning there was no continuous spread of the virus in 12 months. Experts are now afraid that the US will lose its exclusion situation. This means that measles will once again be considered country-specific.
So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 378 measles cases as of Thursday, March 20th. Those numbers are already out of date.
Friday, Texas Department of Health Reported 309 cases in an ongoing outbreak. Forty people were hospitalized and one unvaccinated child has died without underlying medical conditions. The outbreak spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma. In New Mexico, authorities reported cases rose on Friday. 42 casestwo hospitalizations and one death of an unvaccinated adult. In Oklahoma, There are four case counts.
