Unvaccinated child first to die of West Texas measles outbreak thats infected more than 120 people

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.Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Texas Gov.

Greg Abbott’s office.Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center spokesperson Melissa Whitfield first confirmed the death, which happened overnight, to The Associated Press on Wednesday morning.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.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 due to people traveling between towns for work, church, grocery shopping and other day-to-day errands.Texas health department data shows the vast majority of cases are among people younger than 18.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.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 kids will recove...