WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A second child with measles has died in Texas, state officials said on Sunday, in an outbreak of the childhood disease that has resulted in more than 480 cases in Texas and has spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma.
The school-aged child, who was unvaccinated and had no underlying health conditions, died on Thursday in the hospital from measles pulmonary failure, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.
“The child was receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized,” Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, said in an email.
“This unfortunate event underscores the importance of vaccination,” he said, urging people to protect themselves and the broader community. He did not give further details. The New York Times reported the child was an 8-year-old girl.
It is the second death of a child in Texas since the measles outbreak began under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine advocate who has failed to make a strong statement urging parents to vaccinate their children against the highly infectious disease.
Kennedy has said vaccination is a personal choice and advocated for the use of Vitamin A, which has been shown in some studies in developing countries to lessen the severity of symptoms but which can lead to liver toxicity in high quantities, and for the importance of good nutrition.
Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, who is also a physician and who backed Kennedy’s confirmation after Kennedy promised not to make changes to vaccine oversight, said on X after the reported death that “everyone should be vaccinated.”
“Top health officials should say so unequivocally b/4 another child dies,” Cassidy wrote on X.
The measles vaccine is 97% effective after two shots.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its website says the vaccine is “the best protection against measles,” which spreads through the air when an infected person sneezes or coughs.
The latest developments have prompted Kennedy to visit Texas, media outlets reported on Sunday. NBC News said Kennedy planned to attend the child’s funeral scheduled for Sunday.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment on the death or Kennedy’s planned trip, which was first reported by Axios. HHS announced on Friday morning that Kennedy would travel to Utah, Arizona and New Mexico on April 7-9.
KENNEDY HEARING POSTPONED
Cassidy, chair of the Senate health committee, last week called for Kennedy to appear before the committee on April 10 to discuss the U.S. health department’s restructuring in which 10,000 people were being laid off, including from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But on Friday a committee official said the hearing would not occur on April 10 because seven days notice had not been given per committee procedure. No date has been set.
The Texas Department of State Health Services on Friday reported 59 new measles cases in three days, a 15% jump, for a total of 481 in the state since late January.
Related measles outbreaks have been reported in other states, including New Mexico and Oklahoma. In addition, an unvaccinated New Mexico adult tested positive for measles after dying in March.
As of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a weekly nationwide increase of 124 measles cases, bringing the total to 607 so far this year. That compares to a nationwide total in 2024 of 285 reported cases.
CDC officials said that 97% of U.S. cases are unvaccinated or those whose vaccination status is unknown.
Pediatricians and other doctors are pushing back against vaccine hesitancy and warning parents that vitamin A and other supplements touted by vaccine critics will not protect their children from the highly contagious and potentially fatal disease.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Kanishka Singh in Washington and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Caroline Humer, Chizu Nomiyama, Diane Craft, Nick Zieminski and Leslie Adler)
By Kanishka Singh and Susan Heavey
