The Mexican state of Jalisco issued a health alert on Thursday and made mask-wearing mandatory in schools after a measles outbreak hit its capital, a key city slated to host matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
These measures come in the wake of an epidemiological alert published earlier in the week by the Pan American Health Organization concerning the spread of this preventable disease across the Americas, particularly in Mexico, which leads the region with 1,981 cases confirmed by authorities this year and more than 5,200 suspected cases.
Jalisco is the epicenter of the epidemic, with 1,163 confirmed cases this year and 2,092 suspected cases, according to the Mexican government.
The measles outbreak in Mexico began last year in the northern state of Chihuahua after a Mennonite child fell ill while visiting relatives in an area of Texas experiencing an outbreak. Cases surged within Mennonite communities, where vaccine hesitancy is high, before spreading across the country in what is the largest outbreak in Mexico in decades.
An increased risk as the World Cup approaches
Scientists believe the resurgence of outbreaks on the continent is linked to declining vaccination rates. Mauricio Rodríguez, a professor of microbiology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico specializing in epidemics, explains that cases have increased particularly in Mexico because many communities lack a complete measles vaccination schedule.
He believes this represents an increased risk during the summer, a period when the United States, Mexico and Canada, all facing a rise in measles cases, will welcome visitors from around the world. "With the World Cup, many people will be coming from outside (Mexico), and this represents a risk of introducing even more outbreaks from other regions.", said Mauricio Rodríguez.
Guadalajara is among the main Mexican venues chosen for the World Cup
To curb the spread of the virus, health authorities in Jalisco announced Thursday that mask-wearing would be mandatory for 30 days in schools in seven specific neighborhoods of Guadalajara. Jalisco is the first Mexican state to adopt such measures, following pressure from medical groups on the local government to act urgently. This is the first health mandate of this kind in the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Classes have also recently been suspended in 15 schools in Jalisco and the central state of Aguascalientes due to outbreaks of this highly contagious airborne virus.
Efforts to contain the infection
On Thursday, students and teachers in the areas surrounding Guadalajara went to school wearing masks, while long lines formed outside vaccination centers set up in public buildings. Ángel Ivan Soto Mendez, who was there with his family to get vaccinated, said they had already planned for their children to come to school with masks and hand sanitizer.
"If everyone doesn't get vaccinated, there will be infections everywhere.", did he declare.
Canada lost its measles-free status in November, and the United States and Mexico are at risk of suffering the same fate. Both governments have requested a two-month extension to try to control the outbreak, even though the Trump administration withdrew from the World Health Organization, under whose auspices PAHO operates, in January.
In the first three weeks of this year, 1,031 additional cases of measles were confirmed in seven countries in the Americas, with no deaths reported, a figure 43 times higher than that recorded in the same period last year, PAHO said in a statement Wednesday.
For several weeks the Mexican government has been encouraging the population to get vaccinated against measles, a disease that can be prevented with two doses of vaccine, and has announced the opening of vaccination sites in places such as airports and bus stations.
