A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said on Friday there have been ten confirmed cases of measles in Gaines County. DSHS reported it as an outbreak of measles in the county.

On January 30, officials reported two measles cases in unvaccinated, school-aged children in Gaines County, which sits at the border of New Mexico and is around 90 miles southwest of Lubbock, Texas. Both children were hospitalized in Lubbock and had been discharged.

Elsewhere, the Georgia Department of Public Health today reported two more measles cases in unvaccinated Atlanta residents. In a statement, the group said the patients are family members of a case confirmed in January.

Two new measles cases in Gaines County add to Texas's outbreak. Vaccination remains key to prevention, health officials emphasize.

Public health practitioners warn that measles outbreaks like the one hitting children in Texas will become more common because of scores of laws around the United States — pending and passed — that ultimately lower vaccine rates.

A measles outbreak is growing in a Texas county with dangerously low vaccination rates. In late January, two school-age children from Gaines County were hospitalized with measles. Since an estimated 1 in 5 people with the disease end up in the hospital,