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Since the start of February, five measles cases have been confirmed in one household in Rockwall, health officials say.
All five confirmed cases live within the same household, the Rockwall County Health Authority said, and the family is self-quarantining and being monitored for 21 days by doctors. The individual who was originally diagnosed with measles on Feb. 5 has recovered.
In an interview with WFAA, Rockwall Health Authority Dr. Dirk Perritt said the first measles case was found in a preschool-aged child, and the next four cases have been in school-aged children. The children were pulled from their schools prior to showing symptoms, he said. Measles can cause high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. The disease is especially dangerous for children under the age of 5
The Rockwall children were not vaccinated against measles, Perritt added, putting them at a 90% risk of contracting the virus at exposure. The family recently returned from international travel, and the strain of measles found in the children matches an international variety of the virus.
“Just for the public to understand, if you’ve been vaccinated, you’re safe,” Perritt said. “You don’t need to take any other protection. If you’ve not been vaccinated, you might want to reconsider for your children.”
It is unclear how many active measles cases there currently are in Texas, but Centers for Disease Control data updated on Feb. 12 suggests these may be some of the first this year. The virus has found a foothold elsewhere in the country so far in 2026, though. More than 900 measles cases have been reported across the United States so far this year, most stemming from outbreaks.
In all of 2025, there were 2,276 recorded cases of measles in the U.S. A measles outbreak in West Texas was responsible for 762 of those infections, and local health officials believe there may be hundreds more cases that were never diagnosed. Two children died from the virus.
The Texas outbreak started the clock on a year-long pattern of transmission that epidemiologists say has put the United States’ status as “eliminating” the virus at risk. The Pan American Health Organization will review the country’s designation as having eliminated measles this spring, NPR reports.
