Texas measles cases rise to 146 in an outbreak that led to a child's
death
[March 01, 2025]
By JAMIE STENGLE
DALLAS (AP) — The number of people with measles in Texas increased to
146 in an outbreak that led this week to the death of an unvaccinated
school-aged child, health officials said Friday.
The number of cases — Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years — increased by
22 since Tuesday. The Texas Department of State Health Services said
cases span over nine counties in Texas, including almost 100 in Gaines
County, and 20 patients have been hospitalized.
The child who died Tuesday night in the outbreak is the first U.S. death
from the highly contagious but preventable respiratory disease since
2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The
child was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the
facility said the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.
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 was watching cases but dismissed the outbreak as “not unusual.”
But on Friday afternoon, Kennedy said in a post on X that his heart went
out to families impacted by the outbreak, and he recognized “the serious
impact of this outbreak on families, children, and healthcare workers.”
Kennedy went on to say in the post that his agency will continue to fund
Texas' immunization program and that ending the outbreak is a “top
priority” for him and his team.
The virus has largely spread through rural, oil rig-dotted West Texas,
with cases concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite
community, state health department spokesperson Lara Anton has said.
Gaines County 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.
Texas law allows children to get an exemption from school vaccines for
reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. Anton has said the
number of unvaccinated kids in Gaines County is likely significantly
higher because homeschooled children's data would not be reported.
The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) 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. Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead
to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling
and death.
[to top of second column]
|
A sign is seen outside a clinic with the South Plains Public Health
District Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, in Brownfield, Texas. (AP
Photo/Julio Cortez)
 Vaccination rates have declined
nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, and most states are below
the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartners — the level needed
to protect communities against measles outbreaks.
The U.S. had considered measles, a respiratory virus that can
survive in the air for up to two hours, eliminated in 2000, which
meant there had been a halt in continuous spread of the disease for
at least a year. Measles cases rose in 2024, including a Chicago
outbreak that sickened more than 60.
Eastern New Mexico has nine cases of measles currently, but the
state health department said there is no connection to the outbreak
in West Texas.
At a news conference Friday in Austin, officials confirmed the first
reported case in Travis County since 2019. Dr. Desmar Walkes of the
Austin-Travis County Health Authority said the case involved an
unvaccinated infant who was exposed to the virus during a vacation
overseas.
Texas Department of State Health Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen
said the case was one of four linked to international travel so far
this year, none of which were part of the West Texas outbreak. The
others were two in Houston last month and one reported this week in
Rockwall County, east of Dallas.
In the Travis County case, the child’s family members were
vaccinated and were isolating at home and no exposures were
expected, Walkes said. She could not give the exact age of the
infant.
Officials at the news conference urged people to get vaccinated if
they are not already.
“We're here to say quite simply: Measles can kill, ignorance can
kill and vaccine denial definitely kills,” said U.S. Rep. Lloyd
Doggett, a Democrat.
School officials in two Texas cities each reported reported one
rubella case this week, but Van Deusen said no infections had been
confirmed.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
