The Oregon person who tested positive January 25 had been in contact with someone from southwest Washington in Clark County, who was contagious with measles.

"Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus, which spreads to others through coughing and sneezing", said Umair A. Shah, MD, MPH, Executive Director for HCPH.

In Harris County, two boys and a woman are being treated for measles.

A boy in Galveston County, who is between one and two years old, was tested on January 28 and confirmed to have measles.

There are now no reported confirmed cases of measles in Yakima County.

One case of measles has been confirmed in Denton County raising the statewide total to seven, according to health officials.

Forty-eight of the cases are in children 18 years and younger and all the cases either were unvaccinated, undervaccinated or an unknown vaccination status.

Measles is an airborne disease which is highly contagious but it is preventable. Vaccination is incredibly effective at protecting those we love from this infection.

To prevent illness, one dose of measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine must be given to unimmunized people within 72 hours of exposure.

Symptoms of measles include high fever, cough, runny nose, and red eyes, followed up by flat red spots that appear on the face at the hairline and spread down throughout the body. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not yet immune could become infected.

So far so good say health officials in Yakima. The Houston outbreak comes as new circumstances of measles are being confirmed in Washington state every day, and different instances have been established in Oregon, Georgia, and NY. Visit www.vaccines.gov to locate clinics that provide measles vaccinations.

In 2018, there were 17 outbreaks and about 350 diagnosed cases of measles in the U.S.