As Gaines County, Texas, deals with a measles outbreak, experts are reminding Americans that outbreaks like these can be avoided with available safe and effective vaccines.

Two dozen cases of measles have been reported in a small West Texas county that has one of the state’s highest vaccine exemption rates. In Gaines County, which has a population of about 22,000, 24 cases of the airborne infectious disease have been reported since late January. Most of them are unvaccinated, school-aged children.

According to the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Rule §97.7, schools and childcare settings shall exclude unimmunized children for at least 21 days after the last date the unimmunized child was exposed to a measles case.