LUBBOCK, Texas — A person who was hospitalized with measles has died from measles in West Texas, the first death in an outbreak that began late last month.
Editor’s note: The above video was published on Feb. 25, one day before the first death was reported.
The Texas Department of State Health Services on Wednesday confirmed the death. DSHS said the patient was an unvaccinated school-aged child.
Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 124 cases across nine counties, the state health department said Tuesday. DSHS said most of the cases are in children and 18 people have been hospitalized over the course of the outbreak.
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 susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
The outbreak is largely spreading in the Mennonite community in an area where small towns are separated by vast stretches of oil rig-dotted open land but connected due to people traveling between towns for work, church, grocery shopping and other day-to-day errands.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
