STORY: It’s been an anxious few months for Michelle Gordon.

But on Tuesday the Texas mom was able to visit a measles vaccination site in Lubbock, with her 10-month-old son, Walker... who is finally old enough for his measles shot.

"I tried to get in here as quick as I could to give him some protection, because it's scary. I mean, two children have died, you know? So I don't want that to be mine.”

Measles cases jumped to 561 statewide on Tuesday, up 20 in less than a week.

That was as the U.S. government said it was sending seven people to the state to help battle the outbreak of the childhood disease.

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Dr. Katherine Wells, Lubbock’s public health director, told Reuters she never expected an outbreak this big in her own backyard.

“I knew there was unvaccinated or vulnerable populations in this area, but seeing an outbreak that's this big, that's probably now the largest outbreak Texas has seen in 30 years, this will probably be the largest outbreak that the U.S. has seen, probably in the same amount of time.”

Dr Wells warns the outbreak could last a year.

So far, 58 people have been hospitalized and two unvaccinated children have died from measles in Texas.