Unvaccinated Child In West Texas Becomes First To Die During State’s Measles Outbreak, First Death In U.S. From Disease Since 2015

A child in West Texas who had not been vaccinated has become the first person to die of measles during the state’s outbreak. Over 24 people in Gaines County, Texas, were diagnosed with measles, with nine patients hospitalized.

Gaines County has one of the highest rates of vaccine exemptions in Texas, and it was confirmed that everyone identified with the disease is unvaccinated. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported this death, which took place during the ongoing outbreak in the South Plains and Panhandle regions. The unvaccinated and school-aged child was hospitalized in Lubbock over a week ago and tested positive for measles.

This is the first measles death in America since 2015 when a woman in Washington state passed away.

As of Feb. 25, 124 cases of measles had been confirmed in the outbreak since late January. Most of these cases are in children. Eighteen people were hospitalized during the outbreak.

During President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, stated that there were two measles deaths. However, Texas officials confirmed Wednesday afternoon there had been only one death.

Kennedy mentioned that hospitalizations were primarily “for quarantine,” but local health officials said that most patients had been admitted for respiratory issues.

HHS Director of Communications Andrew G. Nixon said that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “is aware of the death of one child in Texas from measles, and our thoughts are with the family.”

“CDC continues to provide technical assistance, laboratory support and vaccines as needed to the Texas Department of State Health Services and New Mexico Department of Health, which are leading the response to this outbreak,” Nixon noted. “The United States had really gotten to a point where we just didn’t see these kinds of outbreaks happening. Obviously, that has changed over the last 20-something years, and so we do see outbreaks more frequently, but that is related to how much we’re vaccinating our population.”

“When we think of about vaccine-preventable illnesses, they’re only preventable if we have adequate vaccination rates,”the chief medical officer stated.

Other states, like Oregon, confirmed six cases in July 2024, and state health authorities warned that the number would increase in the coming weeks. 

The outbreak took place in Marion County, and the first cases involved an unvaccinated adult and child in the same household who were infected in the county. Soon, three more unvaccinated children from separate households, aged between four and fourteen, were infected.