DALLAS--A child in West Texas has died of measles, state health officials said on Wednesday, the first reported U.S. death from the highly contagious disease in a decade, as a Texas outbreak has grown from a handful of cases to more than 130 across two states.
The child, who was not vaccinated against the disease, died overnight in a children's hospital, the Texas health department said in a statement."We have had so many kids coming in and then obviously we were not prepared, probably, so early in what we are seeing to have a death," said Amy Thompson, CEO of Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock, where the child died in what officials said was the fourth week of the measles outbreak.
During a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine critic who was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services earlier this month, said two people had died in the Texas outbreak. He did not provide details, and health authorities in Texas and New Mexico have confirmed only one death, in Texas.
At least 124 people were known to be infected in West Texas since early February, all but five of them unvaccinated and most of them children, Texas health officials said.An additional nine cases were announced on Tuesday in eastern New Mexico, near the Texas state line where the outbreak has spread to about 10 counties, Texas health officials said.
Patients have displayed symptoms such as high fever, red watery eyes, nasal congestion, cough and a rash that begins on the face, said Lara Johnson, chief medical officer at the Lubbock hospital. Children have been treated with supplemental oxygen and high-flow oxygen, medication for high fever and IV fluids, she said.
New Mexico’s health department has warned that “because measles is so contagious, additional cases are likely to occur.”The U.S. death rate from measles, which spreads through the air by respiratory droplets from coughing or sneezing, is 1 to 3 deaths out of every 1,000 reported cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last U.S. measles death was in 2015, according to the CDC.
