The state's largest measles outbreak in 30 years has been largely tied to a Mennonite community in rural West Texas. Earlier this month, Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services,

The Mennonite population being affected by a measles outbreak in West Texas is part of a larger, loosely affiliated group of churches worldwide with varied beliefs and leadership structures — and with sometimes strained or distant relations with health officials and other public authorities.

Gaines County in West Texas is at the heart of the ongoing measles outbreak. Non-medical vaccine exemption rates there are high.

Vaccine hesitancy has been rising for years in the United States. Doctors and parents in one rural county are confronting the consequences.

Texas health officials say the number of people with measles has increased to 146 in rural West Texas outbreak that led this week to the death of a school-aged child who was not vaccinated

The majority of the 124 measles cases reported in Texas this year have been in children between five and 17. The first death in an ongoing measles outbreak has been reported in Texas. The Texas Department of State Health Services announced the death of a school-aged child on Wednesday morning.

Measles was considered to be eliminted in the U.S. in 2000, thanks to vaccine developments. But vaccination rates have dropped since the covid pandemic began.

A growing measles outbreak in Texas, where one unvaccinated child died and nearly 20 others have been hospitalized with serious complications, marks the first major test for U.S. Health Secretary Robert F.