Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
For the first time since the West Texas measles outbreak began, the state health department had no new cases to report this week.
Dr. Jennifer Shuford, Commissioner of the Department of State Health Services, told Texas Standard, "We appear to be at the downward end of this curve."
The DSHS commissioner stressed, however, that with outbreaks active across the country and the world, measles could come roaring back in Texas.
"It just takes one person to get into an under-vaccinated community to cause another outbreak," Shuford said.
In addition to the 742 measles cases in Texas tied to the outbreak, there are 33 cases that health officials have not been able to connect to it.
Those are the result of what Dr. Shuford called broken chains of transmission.
"Measles is so contagious, and it can hang in the air for two hours after a person has been in a space," she pointed out. "So it is hard for us to always know who passed measles to whom."
Since January, 94 people have been hospitalized as a result of the West Texas outbreak. Two unvaccinated, otherwise healthy children have died.
At least 1,168 measles infections have been reported in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC has issued guidance for international travelers to make sure they're fully vaccinated against measles before flying.
Each unvaccinated person on a plane with an infected traveler is at high risk for contracting the airborne virus and passing it to others, so the CDC wants travelers to confirm they’ve had both doses of the measles vaccine at least two weeks before they travel.
The CDC has received 62 reports of air travelers contagious with measles while flying this year.
