School-age children die in Texas amid a concentrated outbreak among followers of Christian denominations.
The US reported the first measles death in 10 years after an unvaccinated child became ill amid the outbreak of a highly contagious disease in Texas.
The school child died overnight after being hospitalized in Lubbock, northwest Texas, the state health department said in a statement Wednesday.
The death came amid a controversy over the decline in vaccination rates in the United States and the appointment of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy JR to the nation’s top health authorities.
More than 130 measles cases have been reported this year in Texas and neighboring New Mexico.
Health officials say most cases are concentrated in the Mennonite Christian follower community, and their pockets are known for being vaccinated.
Kennedy, who promoted scientifically unreliable research linking vaccines to autism, took place at President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, dismissing the outbreak as “unusual.”
“By the way, there have been four measles this year in this country,” Kennedy told reporters.
“Last year, there was 16. So that’s not uncommon. We have a measles outbreak every year.”
The number of measles cases in the US peaked at nearly 1,274 in 2019, then plunged during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Authorities reported 285 cases in 2024. This is up from 59 cases in 2023 and 121 cases in that year.
The World Health Organization declared in 2000 that measles had been excluded from the United States. In other words, although it has not been outbreak for more than a year, its status has been under threat in recent years amid the spread of anti-vaccine sentiment.
The US last reported measles-related deaths in 2015 after a fatal 12 years related to the disease.
Measles is extremely dangerous for unvaccinated individuals, including young toddlers who are not eligible for vaccination.
According to the CDC, about one in five people in the United States who obtain measles are hospitalized, and one in 20 people with measles suffer from pneumonia.