The Texas Department of State Health Services said on Friday there have been ten confirmed cases of measles in Gaines County. DSHS reported it as an outbreak of measles in the county.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is reporting an outbreak of measles in Gaines County. All cases have been identified among unvaccinated school-aged children who are residents of Gaines County. Symptom onset began within the last two weeks.

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

A measles outbreak is growing in a Texas county with dangerously low vaccination rates. In late January, two school-age children from Gaines County were hospitalized with measles. Since an estimated 1 in 5 people with the disease end up in the hospital, the two cases suggested a larger outbreak.

Fears of an increasing measles outbreak among children are rising in Texas, as most of the population is reportedly unvaccinated.

On January 30, officials reported two measles cases in unvaccinated, school-age children in Gaines County, which sits at the border of New Mexico and is around 90 miles southwest of Lubbock, Texas. Both children were hospitalized in Lubbock and had been discharged.

Texas Health and Human Services reports that seven children have been hospitalized with the disease. All were unvaccinated.