Unvaccinated Texas child dies in measles outbreak, first US fatality in years
Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, the top US health official and a vaccine critic, dismissed the Texas outbreak as ‘not unusual’
An unvaccinated child in Texas has died from measles, authorities said Wednesday, marking the first US fatality from the highly contagious disease in nearly a decade as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr played down a growing outbreak.
The death comes as immunisation rates decline nationwide, with the latest cases concentrated in a Mennonite religious community that has historically shown vaccine hesitancy.
It arrived at a delicate moment for US public health as Kennedy, who has long spread falsehoods about the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, begins his tenure leading the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The school-aged child who was not vaccinated was hospitalised in Lubbock last week and tested positive for measles,” the state health department said in a statement, with city officials adding the child died “within the last 24 hours”.
This year more than 130 measles cases already have been reported in west Texas and neighbouring New Mexico, the vast majority in unvaccinated children.