The Rockwall County Commissioners Court has announced a confirmed case of measles in the county. In a Facebook post yesterday, the Rockwall County Commissioners Court said an adult resident of the county who recently traveled to West Texas tested positive for measles last week. County officials say the person has since recovered and stayed home for most of the time they were infectious.
That case was not included in data released by the Texas Department of State Health Services yesterday. State officials have been publishing data about the measles outbreak twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Friday. Yesterday’s report listed the number of patients diagnosed with measles in Northeast Texas at 11. All of them are in Lamar County.
Statewide, two children have died and 561 Texans have been diagnosed with measles since late January. Fifty-eight patients have been hospitalized.
Vaccination remains the most effective prevention against measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who have had two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination are at low risk of contracting the disease, which can lead to pneumonia, severe brain swelling and death.
