A child not vaccinated has died of measles in West texas, the first death in an outbreak that began at the end of the last month, and the first of measles in the United States since 2015.
Death was a “children of school age who was not vaccinated” and was taken to the hospital last week, the Texas Ministry of Health announced in a statement on Wednesday. Lubbock’s health officers also confirmed death, but no agency provided more details. A press conference is planned for Wednesday afternoon.
Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock did not immediately answer a request for comments, and the governor of Texas Greg Abbott was not immediately.
The measles outbreak in rural west texas has grown to 124 cases in nine counties, which state health officers in Texas have given for almost 30 years. There are also nine cases in the east of New Mexico.
The measles were eradicated in Canada in 1998, but the new cases increase with falling vaccination rates. In the first two months of this year, 95 people were infected, compared to 147 for all 2025.
The US centers for the control and prevention of diseases confirmed that this has been the first measles death in the country since 2015. The measles cases were the worst in 2019, and in 2024 an increase in cases, including an outbreak in Chicago, the sick was more than 60.
The outbreak is spreading in the Mennonite community in West-Texas, mostly, where small cities are separated by huge sections on an open country with oil brothers, but are connected because of people who travel between cities for work, church, food purchases and other errands .
Most cases are people under the age of 18
Department of the Ministry of Health in Texas show that the vast majority of cases in the region under the age of 18 belong under the age of 18. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccines – which is safe and highly effective when preventing infections and serious cases – are recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old for the first shot, the second comes between four and six years.
The Vaccine series is required for children before the kindergarten in public schools in the USA occurs, but the measles cases in West texas concentrated concentrated or taught the small private religious schools at home.
Gaines County with 80 cases has one of the highest rates in Texas of children of school age who decide at least one required vaccine, with almost 14 percent of K-12 children in the school year 2023-24.
So far, 95 measles cases have been reported in Canada this year, says Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer. There were 147 measles cases for the entire last year in Canada.
Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba reported new cases in the past week. Most cases have not been vaccinated, say local health officers.
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