Another child with measles in Texas died, confirmed the Ministry of Health and Social Services late Saturday.
School girl recently received a diagnosis of viral disease and died at the University Medical Center children’s hospital in Lubbock, the hospital said on Sunday morning.
“The child received treatment for the complications of measles during hospitalization,” said the press release. “It is important to note that the child was not vaccinated against measles and had no known underlying disease. This unfortunate event highlights the importance of vaccination.”
It is the Second pediatric death In a rapid growth epidemic that has infected nearly 500 people in Texas only since January. An adult from New Mexico is also suspected of having died of measles. Deaths are the first of the disease in the United States in a decade.
Friday, Texas Department of State Health Services said, 481 cases of measles were confirmedA leap of 14% compared to last week.
They include six infants and toddlers in a Lubbock daycare center that has tested positive In the past two weeks.
Two of these children are one of 56 people hospitalized with measles in the region since the disease began to spread at the end of January, health officials said.
HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday on x That he was in the county of Gaines, the epicenter of the epidemic, to meet families of the community. He said he had spoke to the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to provide continuous support and teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teams had been returned to the state.
Kennedy said in the post that “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the ROR vaccine”.
Kennedy had to attend the child’s funeral on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the plans.
About 1 to 3 out of 1,000 children infected with measles Die in respiratory and neurological complications, according to the CDC. And about 1 in 20 children with measles obtains pneumonia, the most common cause for deaths of measles in young children. The disease can also Erase the immune systemA long -term complication called “immune amnesia”.
The epidemic that started in Texas in January has spread to at least two other states.
Nationally, 628 cases of measles were reported in at least 21 states and Washington, DC, this year, according to an NBC News Tally.
The number is likely to be a vast underestimation, considering that Many people are not tested For the virus, according to Lubbock’s public health director Katherine Wells.
Wells and other health officials implored families to have their children vaccinated against measles. Two doses of Ror vaccine are safe and 97% effective to prevent infection, according to the CDc.
The first dose is generally given to 12 to 18 months, and the second is offered around 5 years old, when children enter kindergarten.
During an epidemic, however, babies as young as 6 months can get the first time.