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

Gaines County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state of Texas and has among the highest rates of children with "conscientious exemptions" to school vaccination requirements.

With hospitalizations and at least a dozen cases, health officials race to contain a growing outbreak in a community with low vaccination.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has reported an outbreak of measles among unvaccinated school-going children in Gaines County. Health officials say they are also investigating other potential cases among close contacts to treat people quickly and stop the virus from spreading further.

Measles cases are growing in West Texas and health officials are sounding the alarm about the outbreak that we are seeing and the possibility that the outbreak will grow larger. Last week we reported on two cases from Gaines County that were children who weren't vaccinated against measles and were being hospitalized in Lubbock hospitals.

Two of the four cases are in Lubbock, which hasn’t seen a case in more than 20 years. Measles vaccination rates in Texas have fallen over the last four years.

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,