Health & Science
The city is monitoring 36 wastewater treatment plants and 48 manholes across Houston for measles. It’s also tracking school campuses, daycare centers, shelters, nursing homes and jails.
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Courtesy of Houston Public Works
The Houston area — so far — remains untouched by a West Texas measles outbreak that grew to more than 200 cases on Tuesday.
If someone in the region contracts the highly contagious viral disease, the Houston Health Department says it has multiple systems in place to identify it as quickly as possible.
The city is monitoring 36 wastewater treatment plants and 48 manholes across Houston for measles, Dr. Janeana White, the health department’s deputy health authority, said Tuesday during a statewide webinar organized by Houston-based nonprofit Children at Risk. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported Tuesday that 223 cases of measles tied to the West Texas outbreak have been identified.
White said the city is also monitoring 45 Houston ISD campuses, along with neighboring school districts and daycare centers that "have low vaccination rates." Additionally, the city is tracking nine shelters, eight nursing homes and two local jails.
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The Houston Health Department has said it is confident in its wastewater-tracking system. Dr. David Persse, who also is with the city's health department, said last week that when the city identified two unrelated cases of measles in January, "We picked it up, it's an extremely sensitive way to detect when there's measles."
Those two people contracted the virus by traveling internationally and weren't connected to the West Texas outbreak, according to the Houston Health Department. They have since recovered, and no additional cases have been reported in the Houston area.
That's all the more reason Terry Burke, executive director of Houston-based organization The Immunization Partnership, said Tuesday that although cases may not be high in a community, "Many countries, many parts of the world, still see the measles. So even if your family does not travel internationally, you could come in contact with the measles anywhere in your community."
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The city, in addition to tracking schools and wastewater plants, is also reaching out to local healthcare providers to encourage them to urge their patients to get the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine.
Two doses of the MMR vaccine is 97% effective in preventing measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while one dose is 93% effective.
"We're asking providers to look at how to have alternate hours for individuals to come in and get vaccinated," White said. "To do walk-in clinics, reduce your fees, really look at getting new patients in."
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said last week that around 94% of the county is vaccinated against measles, a relatively high rate compared to the rest of the country. However, it's slightly below the 95% vaccination rate threshold the CDC says is needed to protect most people in a community through herd immunity.
White added that since it has been decades since measles has been a concern in Texas, and the U.S., many local healthcare professionals "have not seen it."
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"So, we're trying to make sure providers know the early warning signs," she said.
Dr. Michael Chang, a pediatric infectious disease physician with UTHealth Houston who also was a panelist during Tuesday's webinar, said there are multiple stages of measles symptoms.
"It classically starts with high fever, up to 106 degrees Fahrenheit, extreme irritability and then runny nose," Chang said, later adding that "after about three or four days of symptoms, then the rash appears and spreads downward from head to toe."
Severe complications, he said, can lead to brain infection, pneumonia and a weakened immune system. So far, two deaths related to the West Texas outbreak have been identified, one in Texas and the other in New Mexico.
White, with the Houston Health Department, said local providers who are seeking more information should call the department at 832-393-5188. Its hotline for Houstonians to set up vaccine appointments is 832-393-5427.
