EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – As the Mexican border state of Chihuahua grapples with a measles outbreak, health officials are visiting Mennonite communities urging residents to immunize.
Chihuahua has recorded 1,537 measles cases, including three fatalities, as of May 22, the state’s health department reported on Thursday. Cases are being reported in 37 cities, including the state capital Chihuahua City and Juarez, its largest metropolis.
Across the border, the Texas Department of State Health Services on Friday reported that 728 cases have been confirmed since January, with six new cases reported since May 20. Ninety-four people have been hospitalized during that stretch and two school-aged children have died.
In El Paso, 57 cases have been reported with no fatalities.
Mexican health officials traced the initial outbreak in Chihuahua to the western city of Cuauhtemoc and several surrounding rural Mennonite “camps” or communities. Several residents have business and family ties to West Texas, where measles was first reported this year.
Chihuahua Health Secretary Gilberto Baeza Mendoza and other state officials this week visited vaccination sites in Cuauhtemoc and Riva Palacios, his office reported.
He held a meeting with Mennonite community leaders Jacobo Dick, Peter Unger Harms, Jacob Giesbrecht and Hendrich Friesen Ennsde to encourage widespread vaccination. Most of the measles cases in Chihuahua involve unvaccinated adults and minors, according to the Chihuahua Health Department.
The fatalities include two unvaccinated Mennonite children and an adult with underlying health conditions, Mexican officials said.
The state has enlisted the help of the Pan American Health Organization to persuade families to vaccinate and keep the outbreak from spreading south into other states in Mexico.
Baeza’s office said the health workers now will be taking their vaccination campaign house-to-house.
So far, 90 percent of measles cases recorded in Mexico this year have taken place in Chihuahua.
Read: Read More