The first vaccinated child who dies from the West Texas measles explosion

Lubbock, Texas – a child who was not vaccinated has died from measles in West Texas, the first death in an explosion that began at the end of last month and the first from measles to the US since 2015.

Death was a “school age child who was not vaccinated” and was hospitalized last week, the State Department of State Health Department in Texas said Wednesday in a statement.

The Lubbock Covenant Children Hospital did not immediately respond to a comment request, nor the office of Texas governor Greg Abbott.

Spokesman for the University of Texas Tech Tech Tech Science Center Melissa Whitfield confirmed for the first time death, which occurred overnight at the Associated Press on Wednesday morning.

The spread of measles in Rural West Texas has increased in 124 cases in nine circles, which state health officials have said is the largest Texas in nearly 30 years.

There are also nine cases in Eastern New Mexico.

US centers for disease control and prevention confirmed that this is the first death of measles in the country since 2015.

Measles cases were the worst in almost three decades in 2019, and there was an increase in cases in 2024, including an explosion in the Aroicago that became more than 60.

The explosion is spreading mainly in the Mennonite community in West Texas, where small cities are shared with large stretches of open oil -painted land but connected due to people traveling between cities for work, church, food and other daily mistakes.

Texas Department of Health Department shows that most cases are among people younger than 18 years old.

Gaines region, which has 80 cases, has one of the highest texas rates of school-age children who choose at least one vaccine required, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year.

Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours.

Up to 9 out of 10 people who are sensitive will receive the virus if exposed, according to US centers for disease control and prevention.

Most children will recover from measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.

US Centers for Disease Control are providing “technical assistance, laboratory support and vaccine as needed” for West Texas, the agency told the AP, but the State Health Department is taking on the explosion investigation.