DALLAS—The number of people with measles in Texas increased to 146 in an outbreak that led this week to the death of a school-aged child, health officials said Friday.
The number of cases—Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years—increased by 22 since Tuesday. The Texas Department of State Health Services said cases span over nine counties in Texas, including almost 100 in Gaines County, and 20 patients have been hospitalized.
The child who died Tuesday night in the outbreak is the first U.S. death from the highly contagious but preventable respiratory disease since 2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The child was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the facility said the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, said this week that the U.S. Department of the Health and Human Services was watching cases.
On Friday afternoon, Kennedy said in a post on X that his heart went out to families impacted by the outbreak, and he recognized “the serious impact of this outbreak on families, children, and healthcare workers.”
Kennedy went on to say in the post that his agency will continue to fund Texas’ immunization program and that ending the outbreak is a “top priority” for him and his team.
The United States had considered measles, a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours, eliminated in 2000, which meant there had been a halt in continuous spread of the disease for at least a year. Measles cases rose in 2024, including a Chicago outbreak that sickened more than 60.
Eastern New Mexico has nine cases of measles currently, but the state health department said there is no connection to the outbreak in West Texas.
At a news conference Friday in Austin, officials confirmed the first reported case in Travis County since 2019. Dr. Desmar Walkes of the Austin-Travis County Health Authority said the case involved an infant who was exposed to the virus during a vacation overseas.
