West Texas Reports Nearly 200 Measles Cases. New Mexico Is Up To 30

Health officials say West Texas now has almost 200 measles cases and New Mexico's case number has tripled to 30.

A historic measles outbreak in West Texas is just short of 200 cases, Texas state health officials said Friday, while the number of cases in neighboring New Mexico tripled to 30.

Most of the cases across both states are in people younger than 18 and people who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

Texas health officials identified 39 new infections of the highly contagious disease, bringing the total count in the West Texas outbreak to 198 people since it began in late January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far.

Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas, the nation’s first measles death in a decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that they were sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the outbreak.

New Mexico health officials had been reporting for weeks a steady number of cases in Lea County — which borders the epicenter of Texas’ outbreak. But on Friday, state health officials provided The Associated Press a week-by-week count that shows cases have steadily increased from 14 cases in the week of Feb. 9 to 30 this week.