Texas child is first confirmed death in growing measles outbreakThe unvaccinated school-age child is the first confirmed fatality in Texas’s worst measles outbreak in three decades.
LUBBOCK, Texas — A child has died of measles here , the first confirmed fatality in Texas’s worst outbreak of the disease in three decades, state health officials said Wednesday. The unvaccinated school-age child was hospitalized last week, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The death is the first known U.S. measles fatality since 2015.
Officials have reported 124 cases in Texas, mostly in west Texas, since late January, and nine cases in a neighboring New Mexico county. Nearly 80 percent are children, who are more susceptible to the vaccine-preventable disease.