Measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, but declining vaccination rates have spurred a resurgence in the highly contagious virus, according to Unicef (which has reported a 300% spike in global measles cases over last year) and the CDC. Pockets of unvaccinated children have risen as the proportion of young kids who aren’t getting inoculations like the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine has roughly quadrupled over the past 15 years, according to the CDC. Approximately 110,000 people died from measles in 2017, according to the World Health Organization, and most were children under five.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Johns Hopkins University identified the 25 U.S. counties that are most at risk of measles outbreaks due to low vaccination rates being compounded by the high volume of international travel in the area. They include Tarrant, Travis and Harris county in Texas.
