News Brief
A school-aged child has died in Texas after being hospitalized for measles, the first death in the current West Texas outbreak and first US death from the virus in more than a decade.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that the child was not vaccinated.
According to the department, as of Feb 25th, 124 cases of measles have been confirmed in the outbreak since late January. Most of the cases are in children. Eighteen people have been hospitalized over the course of the outbreak.
This is the first US measles death since 2015, when a woman in Washington state died, according to CNN.com.
The CDC reports that the measles infection rate is up to 90% in unvaccinated people who are exposed to the virus. The best protection against measles the MMR vaccine, the agency says.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said his agency in monitoring the outbreak but said, “It’s not unusual.” There have been four measles outbreaks in the United States this year, Kennedy told reporters at President’s Trump’s first cabinet meeting on February 26th, adding, “We have measles outbreaks every year.”
