An unvaccinated child has died in the Texas measles outbreak
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LUBBOCK, Texas — A child who was not vaccinated has died from measles in West Texas, the first death in an outbreak that began late last month and the first from measles in the U.S. since 2015.
The death was a “school-aged child who was not vaccinated” and had been hospitalized last week, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday in a statement. Lubbock health officials also confirmed the death, but neither agency provided more details. A news conference is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office.
The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 124 cases across nine counties, which state health officials have said is Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. There are also nine cases in eastern New Mexico.
In a new book, pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Adam Ratner details the history of measles, a virus that’s often a bellwether for public health disasters.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed this is the first measles death in the country since 2015. Measles cases were the worst in almost three decades in 2019, and there was a rise in cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.
The outbreak is largely spreading in the Mennonite community in West Texas, where small towns are separated by vast stretches of oil-rig-dotted open land but connected by people traveling for work, church, grocery shopping and other errands.
Texas health department data show the vast majority of cases in the area are among people younger than 18. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — which is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases — is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old for the first shot, with the second coming between 4 and 6 years old.
The vaccine series is required for children before they can enter kindergarten in public schools nationwide. But the measles cases in West Texas have been concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, state health department spokesperson Lara Anton has said, especially among families who attend small private religious schools or are homeschooled.
Health officials warned Thursday that people who were at Los Angeles International Airport and Children’s Hospital of Orange County in recent days may have been exposed to measles.
Gaines County, which has 80 cases, has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year.
Earlier this month, new federal Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said a panel would investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles and other dangerous diseases.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most children will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications including pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is providing “technical assistance, laboratory support and vaccines as needed” to West Texas, the agency told the AP, but the state health department is taking the lead in the outbreak investigation.
Shastri writes for the Associated Press.
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