Second unvaccinated Texas child dies from measles as outbreak worsens

A second school-aged child in West Texas has died from a measles-related illness, a hospital spokesman confirmed Sunday, as the outbreak continues to swell. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, said that the child was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized” and was not vaccinated. The hospital declined to say which day the child died.

Neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Texas State Department of State Health Services included the death in their measles reports issued Friday.



Spokespeople for the state health department and U.S. Health and Human Services Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

A unvaccinated school-age child died of measles in February in Lubbock — the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade.

In early March, an adult in New Mexico who was unvaccinated and did not seek medical care became the second measles-related death. More than two months in, the West Texas outbreak is believed to have spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas, sickening nearly 570 people. The World Health Organization also reported cases related to Texas in Mexico.

The number of cases in Texas shot up by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 more people were hospitalized. A team from the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on the ground in Texas assisting with outbreak response. Nationwide, the U.S.

has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has delivered a tepid message on the importance of vaccination against measles, saying it should be encouraged while also sowing doubt in the vaccine’s safety. He is expected to launch a Make America Healthy Again tour across the southwestern U.S.

early this week. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has been used safely for more than 60 years and is 97 per cent effective against measles after two doses. Dr.

Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s former vaccine chief, said responsibility for the death rests with Kennedy and his staff. Marks was forced out of the FDA after disagreements with Kennedy over vaccine safety. “This is the epitome of an absolute needless death,” Marks told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday.

“These kids should get vaccinated — that’s how you prevent people from dying of measles.”.