SANTA FE – The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) reports two adult Lea County residents tested positive for measles Thursday– as confirmed by the NMDOH Scientific Laboratory Division - totaling to three cases this week.
New Mexico meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s outbreak criteria with three unrelated cases in Lea County. The cases border Texas’s Gaines County, where cases have jumped from 2 to 48 cases in two weeks. While a connection to the Texas outbreak is suspected, it remains unconfirmed.
For those who don’t know New Mexico, Lea County is basically West Texas, and the most Republican county in NM. While NM is a light blue state, it’s because of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and maybe Las Cruces. The rest of the state is deep red.
As soon as I heard how quickly it was spreading in West Texas I knew it was only a matter of short time until it made its way into Lea County.