A person dies of measles in West Texas outbreak
A person has died of measles in Texas, the first death from the disease in a decade in the United States.
The death, confirmed by Katherine Wells, the director of public health for Lubbock’s health department, is part of a fast-moving outbreak that’s infected at least 124 people — mostly children — in rural West Texas. The age of patient who died wasn’t clear.
The official tally of people who have been hospitalized is 18, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
That number isn’t up to date, said Dr. Lara Johnson, a pediatrician and the chief medical officer at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock.
Johnson said in an email that her team has cared for “around 20” kids with measles so far.
All of those kids, she said, were admitted because they were having trouble breathing. None had been vaccinated against measles.
The outbreak has been limited so far to parts of Texas bordering New Mexico. That state has also reported nine measles cases, but officials have not said whether they are connected.
This is the first measles death to be reported in the U.S. since 2015, when a Washington woman died. Health officials at the time said she’d likely been exposed at a clinic in a rural part of the state that was experiencing an outbreak.
Measles was considered eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 because of widespread use of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two doses of the shot are 97% effective in preventing the disease.
