NMDOH reports four additional measles cases in Lea County
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New Mexico health officials reported four additional measles cases in Lea County Tuesday, bringing the total outbreak in New Mexico to 48 cases.
The new cases impacted a very young child, one school-aged child and two adults, according to the state's website. New Mexico's current cases include 25 adults, 14 children aged 5 to 17 and nine very young children ages 0 to 4-years old, mostly in unvaccinated people.
Measles cases in Eddy County remain unchanged at two, with the remaining 46 cases in Lea County.
'Measles is highly contagious, and our department continues to keep the public educated about the spread, which is still confined to the southeast portion of our state,' New Mexico Department of Health Communications Director Robert Nott told Source NM. 'But we must remain vigilant about any case count increase related to the outbreak. We are continually encouraging New Mexicans to get the MMR vaccination – their best protection from the virus.'
NMDOH vaccinated more than 14,800 New Mexicans between Feb. 1 and March 31, Nott said.
Measles, a highly contagious respiratory virus, spreads through contact with airborne droplets from an infected person's coughs and sneezes, which hang in the air for hours. Symptoms often take weeks to develop, and people can spread the virus days before showing a fever, cough, red eyes or the spotty red rash. Severe complications can occur with a measles infection, including brain swelling, blindness, pneumonia and death. About one in five cases merits hospitalization, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State officials warned last month that a Texas traveler in early March exposed people in Valencia and Guadalupe counties. Nott told Source NM the department has no updates since that alert.
Texas on Tuesday reported 22 more cases since Friday, bringing its total to 422 cases since early January; more than 66% of the cases are in Gaines County, Texas, where the outbreak first began.
The deaths earlier this year of a 6-year old Texas child, and a Lea County adult, both unvaccinated, were the first measles deaths in the U.S. in a decade.
Vaccine records can be found at the Vax View website or by calling the NMDOH immunization program at 1-833-882-6454, available weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The measles outbreak, which now includes cases in more than 20 states, has been marked by tension over the federal Health and Human Services Department's lack of a full-throated vaccination campaign, a departure from the traditional response from the country's largest public health agency, including the 1989 outbreak.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children's Health Defense, has instead called vaccines a 'personal choice.' In February, the entire New Mexico congressional delegation called upon Kennedy to take stronger action against the outbreak.
Just last week, the top vaccine scientist at the Food and Drug Administration resigned, criticizing Kennedy for 'lies and misinformation' around vaccines.
Dr. Peter Marks, who played a key role in the swift development and deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine, wrote in his March 28 resignation letter that the ongoing multistate measles outbreak had resulted from public officials undermining 'confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being.'
In interviews, Kennedy has also endorsed unproven treatments, which, if misused, could have lasting harms, doctors told Source NM. For instance, in a March 4 interview with Fox News, Kennedy said there were 'very, very good results' from treating the illness with steroids, antibiotics and cod liver oil, which is high in Vitamins A and D.
Pediatrician Dr. Melissa Mason told Source NM that steroids and antibiotics may be used to treat complications from severe cases of measles — such as severe inflammation or secondary ear or lung infections — but they do not treat measles itself.
'People unnecessarily using steroids and antibiotics can actually cause harm — that should really only be done under close supervision of a physician,' she said.
Two doses of the vaccine remains the only safe and effective prevention against measles, said Mason, who chairs the immunization committee for the New Mexico Pediatric Society.
Mason's other concern is that misinformation about Vitamin A, which is used for treating serious cases of measles, is being falsely touted by anti-vaccine advocates as prevention. Vitamin A — unlike other vitamins — can cause liver damage in too high of doses, Mason said.
'In serious cases, the measles virus depletes the body's supply of Vitamin A,' she said. 'Only for hospitalized patients under the care of a physician, if it is shown that they are low in vitamin A, only then is it appropriate to treat with vitamin A.'
The New York Times reported that doctors in Gaines County, Texas, are treating children with measles with liver damage from taking too much Vitamin A outside of doctor's orders.
No such cases have been reported in Lea or Eddy counties, according to data from the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center at the University of New Mexico. Mason said anti-vaccine misinformation preys on people who are concerned for their children.
'I think people are scared and, when they're scared, they're looking for anything that they can use or try to stay healthy and safe,' she said. 'But you need to be careful and cautious with things that you were trying to use to be healthy and safe and actually use things that are proven.'
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