LUBBOCK, Texas (news agencies) — A child who wasn’t vaccinated died in a measles outbreak in rural West Texas, state officials said Wednesday, the first U.S. death from the highly contagious — but preventable — respiratory disease since 2015.
The school-aged child had been hospitalized and died Tuesday night amid the widespread outbreak, Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. Since it began last month, a rash of 124 cases has erupted across nine counties.
The Texas Department of State Health Services and Lubbock health officials confirmed the death to media. The child wasn’t identified but was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the facility noted the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.
“This is a big deal,” Dr. Amy Thompson, a pediatrician and chief executive officer of Covenant Health, said Wednesday at a news conference. “We have known that we have measles in our community, and we are now seeing a very serious consequence.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official and a vaccine critic, said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of the Health and Human Services is watching cases and dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual.”
He appeared to misstate a number of facts, including a claim that most who had been hospitalized were there only for “quarantine.” Dr. Lara Johnson at Covenant contested that characterization.
“We don’t hospitalize patients for quarantine purposes,” said Johnson, the chief medical officer.
Kennedy also seemed to misspeak in saying two people had died of measles. A spokesman — Andrew Nixon, for the Department of Health and Human Services — later clarified that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified only one death.
The federal government is providing vaccines as well as technical and laboratory support in West Texas, but the state health department is leading the response, Nixon said.
The CDC has said it will provide only weekly updates on the measles outbreak, and had not yet updated its public webpage to reflect the child’s death. Texas health department data shows that a majority of the reported measles cases are in children.
The virus has largely spread among rural, oil rig-dotted towns in West Texas, with cases concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, state health department spokesperson Lara Anton said.
Gaines County, which has reported 80 cases so far, has a strong homeschooling and private school community. It is also home to one of the highest rates of school-aged children in Texas who have opted out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% skipping a required dose last school year.
More than 20 measles patients have been hospitalized at Covenant, including the outbreak’s first identified case, hospital officials said.
Some patients’ respiratory issues progressed to bacterial pneumonia, and they needed an oxygen tube to breathe, Johnson told media. Others had to be intubated, though Johnson declined to say how many due to privacy concerns.
“Unfortunately, like so many viruses, there aren’t any specific treatments for measles,” she said. “What we’re doing is providing supportive care, helping support the patients as they hopefully recover.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said through a spokesman that his office is in regular communication with the state health department and epidemiologists, and that vaccination teams are in the “affected area.”
“The state will deploy all necessary resources to ensure the safety and health of Texans,” said spokesman Andrew Mahaleris, calling the child’s death a tragedy.
Later Wednesday, the state health department confirmed a new measles case in Rockwall County, east of Dallas. The person had traveled internationally and is not related to the West Texas outbreak.
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.
The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide. Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
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