Suraiya first noticed something was wrong with her two-year-old son, Atfan Kuning, when he couldn't eat or keep any food down. The possibility of measles came to mind early as she remembered the warning postings about the vaccine-preventable disease on TV and radio, as well as on billboards plastered around Narathiwat and throughout the southern Thai province. "At first, I tried to think positively, I thought, maybe it’s not measles, maybe it's something else," says Suraiya, 26. "I thought, he got the first vaccine, so this can’t happen to him." But it did. A local doctor diagnosed Atfan with measles - while rare, children can still become infected even after receiving the first of two injections. Even though it's widely accepted that the disease is close to being eradicated, here in Thailand's deep south, the virus has spread rapidly since September, affecting some 3,000 people out of the 4,000 reported cases nationwide and causing the deaths of at least 22 children. Hearing that her son was infected shook Suraiya to the core. And later, when she learned that the disease was possibly deadly, it almost sent her into a panic. "I was terrified," she says. "My husband and I were in disbelief because we got him the first injection already, so we thought how could this be happening to us? I needed to know the worst-case scenario, and if it happens, then I needed to prepare myself." The biggest risk for the young boy was for the disease to spread to his lungs. But luckily for the family, this didn't happen. Instead, Atfan started improving because of the first vaccine. Many others, however, have not been as fortunate, with doctors warning that the measles outbreak has gone off the rails in the country's south. The region borders Malaysia in a cluster of provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Songkla - where tensions have been raging for years amid an ongoing conflict between separatists fighting for independence and the Thai military. Unsurprisingly, the area, albeit naturally beautiful, rarely sees tourists. Experts say the recent measles outbreak is the result of a lack of adequate health education, high levels of child malnourishment and dangerous anti-vaccination narratives that have long plagued the area. "Right now, the situation is really bad," says Muhammadfahmee Talek, a local epidemiologist and lecturer at Prince of Songkla University Pattani campus, noting that the majority of those affected are children under the age of four. Talek attributes the growing number of cases to the deep south's high levels malnutrition - affecting, in some areas, up to 30 percent of children, according to UNICEF - and low vaccination coverage. "The low vaccine rates are for a couple of reasons: one is that there's a religious element that makes locals misunderstand vaccines. Some of it has to do with misinformation from religious leaders," says Talek, who has been following the outbreak closely. "Then there's a second issue that there's a 'Zionist conspiracy', or that vaccines are somehow a 'Western invention' that are dangerous." The predominant religion in Thailand's deep south is Islam, and local adherents are mostly conservative. Although the vast majority have no issue with vaccines, some fundamentalist leaders have grievances with the fact that some vaccinations contain gelatin derived from pork. This is problematic because consuming any kind of pork conflicts with Islamic teachings. Al Jazeera repeatedly contacted two prominent local Muslim leaders who are currently promoting anti-vaccination narratives. Both refused to speak. But other Muslim leaders and local doctors are promoting a more enlightened approach and are working together to fight the outbreak.