A child has died in the Texas measles outbreak – the first US measles death since 2015
Texas authorities on Wednesday announced the first measles death in the state's outbreak of the highly contagious disease.
The death, of a school-age child, is the first measles death in the U.S. since 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Gaines County child died in Lubbock, Zach Holbrooks, public health director and executive director of the South Plains Public Health District, said in an email. In a statement, Lubbock city and Texas health officials confirmed the hospitalized patient was an unvaccinated school-age child who died in the last 24 hours.
In a Cabinet meeting Wednesday at the White House, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said two deaths have been reported in the outbreak. Later on Wednesday, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the CDC, which is part of HHS, was aware of one death, adding "our thoughts are with the family."
Local and state authorities confirmed only one death to Paste BN. Nixon said the CDC is providing technical assistance, laboratory support and vaccines as needed to health officials in Texas and New Mexico, which also has an outbreak suspected to be linked to cases in Texas. Nixon didn't respond to Paste BN's questions about whether Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who has made false claims about the measles shot, misspoke describing the death.
So far, 124 people in Texas are known to have been infected, most of them among people who weren't vaccinated or had no known vaccination status, state data showed. Eighteen people have been hospitalized.
The outbreak is believed to have begun in rural West Texas in an under-vaccinated Mennonite community in Gaines County, where 80 cases have been identified. It has since stretched out across multiple counties and across state lines to New Mexico.
Texas health officials have said the primary factor for its spread, not just among Mennonite people, has been among people who weren’t vaccinated or had no known vaccination status. Several exposures from a contagious person from Gaines County have been reported several hours away in and around San Antonio. On Monday, health officials warned of possible exposure at several tourist attractions, two public universities and a Buc-ee's, the famed Texas gas station, along Interstate 35.
Nine people, including four children, have been infected in an adjacent New Mexico county, state health officials said. All have been among people who weren’t vaccinated or had no known vaccination status. None of the cases have resulted in hospitalization, and there have been no deaths in the state as of Wednesday, according to David Morgan, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Health.
In 2000, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. But as vaccination rates have dropped, cases have reappeared.
The United States' last death, in 2015, was of a woman in Washington state. Before then, there hadn't been a death since 2003, the CDC said.
How does measles spread?
The measles virus is highly contagious. Spread primarily through droplets released by coughing or sneezing, measles can remain in a room and on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person leaves, according to the CDC. A person who is contagious can infect as many as 18 others. People are contagious even before they show symptoms, which include the telltale sign of a rash.
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is highly effective at preventing measles. The full two-dose series is 97% effective against the virus, and just one shot provides 93% protection.
About one-fifth of unvaccinated people who contract measles require hospitalization, according to the CDC. One in 20 children who get infected end up with pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death in children. About 1 in 1,000 children with measles can develop encephalitis, or brain inflammation, which can cause deafness, convulsions or intellectual disabilities.
One to 3 of every 1,000 children infected die of measles because of respiratory or neurologic complications, the CDC said.
With the first death of the child in Texas, the death ratio among the state’s 124 known cases is much higher than would be expected, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told Paste BN.
“It makes you wonder if it really is 124 cases, or if it is a much larger number of cases.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy