Half of US states have reported measles cases this year

CNN Half of states in the US are now reporting measles cases with the national total surpassing cases so far this year according to a CNN tally Bulk of the cases are concentrated in a multistate outbreak involving Texas New Mexico Oklahoma and possibly Kansas that reached cases Friday according to state robustness department updates Texas has stated outbreak-associated cases New Mexico shared cases and Oklahoma revealed cases nine substantiated and three probable as of Friday New Mexico and Oklahoma s numbers have stayed the same since Tuesday Cases in Kansas which the state strength department says may be linked to the larger outbreak have reached as of Wednesday Experts say these numbers are all a severe undercount because countless cases are going unreported The multistate outbreak has put people in the hospital across Texas New Mexico and Kansas five more since Tuesday s update Nationally the US Centers for Syndrome Control and Prevention reports that at least people have been hospitalized accounting for of approved cases CDC statistics shows that only of cases this year have been stated in people who have gotten one or two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella MMR vaccine Local wellness administrators are scrambling to increase vaccinations especially in heavily undervaccinated communities Clinics in Lubbock Texas near the epicenter of the outbreak just expanded their hours These Lubbock clinics have administered more doses of the measles-mumps-rubella MMR vaccine than typically would have been given by this time of year Katherine Wells director of Lubbock Populace Robustness explained this week Two doses of the MMR vaccine are effective against the measles virus Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in Experts warn that growing episode numbers could threaten the country s elimination status if spread of the outbreak continues That would happen after months of ongoing circulation of the same sequence Dr David Sugerman a senior scientist at the CDC reported Tuesday at a meeting of the agency s vaccine advisers That date would be around January he disclosed Two children in Texas have died in the current multistate outbreak and a third death in New Mexico is under research They were all unvaccinated The World Strength Organization noted that cases in Mexico have also been linked to cases in Texas Three cases in Colorado are being investigated for connection to the outbreak after two of the people traveled to Mexico Another occurrence was identified after a Pennsylvania resident traveled to Texas though it is unclear what part of the state the person visited In a news release last week the Arkansas strength department explained that the second episode of measles identified in the state this year was exposed during out of state voyage but no further details were provided Multiple cases in other states have been linked to international voyage