Second measles death reported in Texas amid fast-growing outbreak

Another child with measles in Texas has died, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed late Saturday.

The school-age girl was recently diagnosed with the viral disease and died at University Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, the hospital said in a statement Sunday morning.

"The child was receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized," the statement said. "It is important to note that the child was not vaccinated against measles and had no known underlying health conditions. This unfortunate event underscores the importance of vaccination."

It is the second pediatric death in a fast-growing outbreak that has infected nearly 500 people in Texas alone since January. An adult in New Mexico is also suspected of having died from measles. The deaths are the first from the disease in the United States in a decade. 

As of Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services said, 481 cases of measles had been confirmed, a 14% jump over last week.

They include six infants and toddlers at a Lubbock day care center who tested positive within the past two weeks.

Two of those children are among 56 people who have been hospitalized with measles in the area since the disease started spreading in late January, health officials said.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday on X that he was in Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, to meet with families in the community. He said he had spoken to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to offer continued support and that teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teams had been sent back to the state.

Kennedy said in the post that "the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine."

Kennedy had been expected to attend the child’s funeral Sunday, according to a person familiar with the plans.

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Around 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children infected with measles die from respiratory and neurological complications, according to the CDC. And about 1 of every 20 children with measles get pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. The disease can also wipe out the immune system, a long-term complication called "immune amnesia."

The outbreak that began in Texas in January has spread to at least two other states.

Nationally, 628 measles cases have been reported in at least 21 states and Washington, D.C., this year, according to an NBC News tally.

The number is likely to be a vast underestimate, considering that many people aren’t getting tested for the virus, according to Lubbock’s public health director, Katherine Wells.

Wells and other health officials are imploring families to get their kids vaccinated against measles. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are safe and 97% effective in preventing infection, according to the CDC.

The first dose is generally given at 12 to 18 months, and the second is offered around age 5, when children enter kindergarten.

During an outbreak, however, babies as young as 6 months old can get the first shot.