Vaccine teams in Mexico scramble over measles outbreak rippling out from
Mennonite community
[May 09, 2025]
By MEGAN JANETSKY
CUAUHTEMOC, Mexico (AP) — In a rickety white Nissan, nurse Sandra
Aguirre and her vaccination team drive past apple orchards and
cornfields stretching to the desert horizon. Aguirre goes door to door
with a cooler of measles vaccines. In one of Latin America's biggest
Mennonite communities, she knows many will decline to be vaccinated or
even open their doors. But some will ask questions, and a handful might
even agree to get shots on the spot.
“We’re out here every single day,” said Aguirre, pausing to call out to
an empty farm, checking for residents. “To gain trust of the Mennonites
– because they’re reserved and closed-off people – you have to meet them
where they’re at, show a friendly face.”
Aguirre's work is part of an effort by health authorities across the
country to contain Mexico's biggest measles outbreak in decades, as
cases climb not only here but in the U.S. and Canada. In Mexico, cases
have been concentrated in the Mennonite community — long skeptical of
vaccines and distrustful of authorities — in the northern border state
of Chihuahua.
Officials say results of their campaign alongside Mennonite leaders have
been mixed — they cite tens of thousands of new vaccinations in
Chihuahua, but infections have ballooned and spread past the community
to Indigenous and other populations.
Federal officials have documented 922 cases and one death in Chihuahua.
Officials, health workers and local leaders say the numbers are likely
underestimated, and misinformation about vaccines and endemic distrust
of authorities are their biggest obstacles.
Pressed against the fringes of the small northern city of Cuauhtemoc,
the Mennonite settlement here spans about 40 kilometers (25 miles). With
23,000 residents, it's one of Cuauhtemoc's primary economic engines, but
it's an isolated place where families keep to themselves. Some have
turned to social media and anti-vaccine websites for research. Others
use little technology but visit family in the United States, where they
also hear misinformation — which then spreads through word of mouth.
Chihuahua is a particularly worrisome place, officials say — as a border
state, the risk that the preventable disease will continue spreading
internationally and affect the most vulnerable is high.
“We have a massive flow of people,” said Alexis Hernández, a Cuauhtemoc
health official. “That makes things a lot more complicated.”
The spread of measles in Mexico
Mexico considered measles eliminated in 1998. But its vaccination rate
against the virus was around 76% as of 2023, according to the World
Health Organization — a dip from previous years and well below the 95%
rate experts say is needed to prevent outbreaks.
Mexico’s current outbreak began in March. Officials traced it to an
8-year-old unvaccinated Mennonite boy who visited relatives in Seminole,
Texas — at the center of the U.S. outbreak.
Cases rapidly spread through Chihuahua's 46,000-strong Mennonite
community via schools and churches, according to religious and health
leaders. From there, they said, it spread to workers in orchards and
cheese plants.
Gloria Elizabeth Vega, an Indigenous Raramuri woman and single mother,
fell sick in March. Because she's vaccinated, measles didn't occur to
her until she broke out in hives. Her supervisor at the cheese factory —
who also caught measles — told her she had to take 10 days of leave and
docked her pay 40% for the week, Vega said.
It's rare for vaccinated people to get measles, but officials say that
may account for up to 10% of cases here, though they're milder.
Vega tucked herself away in the back of her two-room home, hoping her
daughter and mother — also vaccinated — wouldn’t get sick. She wishes
people would think of others when considering vaccination.
“They say, ‘Well, I have enough to be fine,’” she said. “But they don’t
think about that other person next to them, or wonder if that person has
enough to live off of.”
Vaccination isn't required in Mexico. Schools can request vaccination
records, federal health department spokesman Carlos Mateos said, but
they cannot deny anyone access to education.
In Chihuahua, some schools started reaching out to parents for copies of
vaccination cards and encouraging shots, said Rodolfo Cortés, state
health ministry spokesman.
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Mennonites Abraham Fehr and Katarina Wall hold their baby as he gets
vaccinated weeks after the family fell sick with measles during an
outbreak in Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua state, Mexico, Thursday, May 1,
2025. (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)
 It's unknown how many in the
Mennonite community have gotten the vaccine — which is safe, with
risks lower than those of measles complications.
Gabriella Villegas, head of vaccination at a clinic treating
Mennonites with measles, estimated 70% of community members are not
vaccinated. Other health authorities estimated the vaccination rate
around 50%.
Along with measles, misinformation is spreading
Mennonites who spoke to The Associated Press — most on condition of
anonymity, fearing backlash — repeatedly cited vaccine
misinformation. One man said U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy
Jr., who has a long record of promoting anti-vaccine views and has
called vaccination a personal choice, is a hero.
“I don’t accept vaccines; it’s that easy. Because that’s where
freedom of expression comes in,” said the man, Jacob Goertzen. "If
we can’t make out own decisions, we don’t live in a democracy.”
Hernández, Cuauhtemoc’s health director, said outside influences
affect community vaccine views.
“The Mennonite population has a lot of access to social media and
family members in the U.S. and Canada, where there are a lot of
myths that have taken hold and many more ‘anti-vaccine’ groups than
we have in Mexico,” he said.
During nurse Aguirre's vaccination drive, one man simply said people
here “prefer to cure themselves in their own way." A mother
described getting sick with measles as a "privilege" and spoke of
putting her unvaccinated 5- and 7-year-olds in a party so everyone
could get sick and recover — a risky tactic doctors have long
denounced.
Mexico's lone death from measles was a 31-year-old Mennonite man in
the settlement who had diabetes and high blood pressure, underlying
conditions that often complicate sicknesses.
Mexico's vaccination efforts
Most people in Indigenous and other communities quickly agreed to
vaccinate, officials told AP, but in Mennonite areas crews have to
do more vigorous outreach — the door-to-door visits, follow-up calls
and conversations, and involvement of local leaders.
In Cuauhtemoc's settlement, that's leaders like Jacob Dyck Penner.
As colony president, he and other leaders closed school for two
weeks to slow infections, have made a push to show residents they’re
working with health authorities, and are encouraging vaccination.
Leaders translate health information into Low German, the native
language of most of the community. Penner and others are assisting
vaccination teams, making sure families know how to access health
services.
“We had to find this way, together with doctors, to not pressure
people or inspire distrust, so they can take their time and make
their own decision to accept (being vaccinated),” Penner said.
Medics report more people visiting clinics, seeking vaccines for
measles and other diseases. Still, Penner said, there a swath of
people will always reject vaccinations.
For this mother, life's now paycheck to paycheck
Health officials like Hernández say they're concerned in particular
for vulnerable populations including Indigenous groups, many of whom
have fewer resources to cope.
Vega, the single mother who got measles, said her job at the cheese
factory was once a blessing, providing health insurance and steady
pay.
But the forced leave and docked pay left her reeling. She said she's
living paycheck to paycheck and wonders how she'll pay the bills —
her daughter's school supplies, lunches, tennis shoes.
“I have a daughter to keep afloat," she said. "It’s not like I have
the option to wait and pay for things, for food.”
____
Associated Press videojournalist Martín Silva Rey contributed to
this report from Cuauhtemoc, Mexico.
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