NYT The larger outbreak, which spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma, is still ongoing. The measles outbreak in West Texas, which hospitalized nearly a hundred and killed two young children, is officially over, state health officials announced in a news release Monday. Officials declare an outbreak over after no new cases have been reported for 42 days.
The state was at the center of the Southwest outbreak, which is ongoing. The Southwest outbreak is the largest single measles outbreak in the United States since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000.
New measles cases have been steadily on the decline in the United States since they peaked in late March — the agency reported just eight new cases in the last week of July and no new cases in the first week of August. However, there are still travel-related cases around the country and an active outbreak in bordering New Mexico. Canada and Mexico are also currently facing large measles outbreaks that together have sickened thousands and caused more than a dozen deaths.