An alarming outbreak of measles in West Texas and New Mexico continues to spread, and public health officials say the rise in cases could continue for several more months.
As of this writing, more than 350 cases have been reported across the two states, resulting in 42 hospitalizations and two deaths.
With the warm-weather travel season fast approaching, you might be concerned about your own vulnerability to measles when you hit the road this spring and summer, even if you’ve been vaccinated.
How Safe and Effective Is the Measles Vaccine?
Measles—which is more contagious than the flu or Covid-19, according to Yale Medicine—starts out with a runny nose, cough, and irritated eyes before leading to a rash that usually starts on the face and upper neck before spreading to the hands and feet.
The rash typically fades after about a week, but in some cases measles can lead to severe complications including pneumonia, vision and hearing problems, brain swelling, and death, explains the World Health Organization.
The best tool for avoiding measles, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, remains the measles vaccine.
Known as the MMR vaccine because it also protects against mumps and rubella, the injection has been deemed safe and effective by medical professionals, public health experts, and scientific studies. (So please don’t start with us.)
Standard guidance advises administering the vaccine to kids in two doses: one at 12–15 months of age and the second at 4–6 years of age before the child starts school.
Those shots block measles 97% of the time for the rest of your life, Yale Medicine asserts.
And because what the CDC calls “robust immunization” has become the norm in the U.S., the “risk for widespread measles in the United States remains low,” even amid the current outbreak.
Indeed, the “vast majority of people getting sick in Texas are unvaccinated,” reports NPR.
There are, however, some vaccinated adults who might want to think about getting a booster—especially if they’re planning to travel internationally or to an area experiencing a measles outbreak.
Who Should Consider Getting a Measles Vaccine Booster Shot?
If you were born before 1957—i.e., before the measles vaccine became widely available—you probably had the disease in childhood and are therefore assumed to have natural immunity. To state the obvious: You probably do not need to be vaccinated against something you’re immune to.
If you were vaccinated before 1968, though, you might have received the less effective, inactivated measles shot rather than the better live version. So you’ll want to talk to your doctor about getting the live measles vaccine if you haven’t done so already.
If you were vaccinated between 1968 and 1989, you probably only got one dose of the measles vaccine as a child, according to NPR, rather than the two shots that most kids have gotten ever since.
While one dose has been found to be 93% effective against measles, a second dose gives you even more protection.
And you might need more protection if you fall into one of the groups considered by the CDC to be at elevated risk for measles exposure: students at post-secondary institutions, health care workers, and international travelers (ahem).
Health officials advise all of those folks to get two doses of the measles vaccine. So if you’ve only gotten one, it’s a good time to re-up.
You don’t even have to be traveling overseas—Americans headed to West Texas or New Mexico should consult their immunization records too.
As Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, put it to NPR, “If you’re traveling somewhere where there’s an active outbreak and you’re not sure that you got two doses, it may not be crazy to get a second dose.”
Being fully vaccinated is important for adults as well as children because the most severe complications from measles occur most often in people over age 30 or under age 5, warns the WHO.
If you’re unsure of how many doses of the measles vaccine you’ve received, the CDC’s website has some helpful tips for tracking down your immunization records.
There are also state and local registries you can consult and even blood tests you can take to determine whether you have measles antibodies.
