There are now more than 120 confirmed measles cases linked to an outbreak in western Texas.

The largest such outbreak the state's seen in over 30 years.

There are another nine cases further west in New Mexico.

And that's raising questions about vaccine hesitancy in some communities and the growing challenge of these periodic outbreaks.

William Brigham has our look.

Unvaccinated people account for almost all these cases,

and children are among the most affected.

We spoke with Dr. Ron Cook, who's a leading physician in Lubbock, Texas,

who is trying to educate the community about this outbreak and the risks.

If you walk into a room and you have measles, 80 to 90% of those individuals within a week

will come down with measles.

All you have to do is go in that room, breathe, cough a couple of times, but 80 to 90%

of those individuals in that room will become infected with measles if they're not vaccinated.

I have a granddaughter that's 10 months old, and I'm concerned about her potentially

catching the measles virus and becoming very sick. And some people would say it's just a virus,

but listen, it can call significant hospitalizations.

It can cause encephalitis.

It can cause even death.

Dr. Cook also said the outbreak is particularly difficult to deal with because it's in such a rural area.

We have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get what we call contact tracing.

We spend a lot of man hours trying to reach out and find people and who was there

and what's their phone number and how do we get in touch with them.

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