Texas measles cases grow in 146 in an explosion that led to the death of a child

The number of people with measles in Texas increased to 146 in an explosion that led this week to the death of an unprecedented school child, health officials said on Friday.

The number of issues “Texas” is the largest in nearly 30 years – increased by 22 since Tuesday.

The Texas Health Services Department said cases include over nine districts in Texas, including nearly 100 in Gaines District, and 20 patients were hospitalized.

The child who died on Tuesday evening in the explosion is the first US death from highly contagious, but preventable respiratory disease since 2015, US centers for control and prevention of diseases said.

The child was treated at the Lubbock Covenant Child Hospital, though the object said the patient did not live in Lubbock County.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s senior health official and a vaccine critic, said Wednesday that the US Health and Human Department was watching cases, but rejected the explosion as “not unusual.”

But on Friday afternoon, Kennedy said in a post on X that his heart went to families affected by the explosion, and he recognized it – the serious impact of this explosion in the family, children and health care workers.

Kennedy continued to say in the post that his agency would continue to finance the Texas immunization program and that the explosion is a priority for him and his team.

The virus has spread mainly to the West’s West-painted West Texas, with occasions focused on a subcisured, Pangutin, subscribed, mennonite community, said Anton State Health Department spokesman.

Gaines district has a strong school union in the home and private school community.

It is also a house for one of the highest levels of school -age children in Texas who have chosen at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% bypassing a dose required last school year.

Texas law allows children to take an exception to school vaccines for consciousness, including religious beliefs.

Anton has said that the number of non -vaccinated children in Gaines District is likely to be significantly higher because the data of home -educated children will not be reported.

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) is safe and very effective in preventing infection and severe cases.

The first blow is recommended for children aged 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.

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

Vaccination rates have fallen nationwide since Pandemia Covid-19, and most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartens-the level needed to protect communities from measles explosions.

SH.BA had considered measles, a respiratory virus that could survive in the air for up to two hours, eliminated in 2000, which meant that it had stopped at the continuous spread of the disease for at least one year.

Measles cases increased in 2024, including an explosion of Aroikagos that gets sick than 60.

The New Eastern Mexico has nine cases of measles currently, but the State Health Department said it has nothing to do with the West Texas explosion.

At a press conference Friday in Austin, officials confirmed the first issue reported in Travis County since 2019.

Dr. Desmar Walkes of the Austin-Travis district health authority said the issue included an undefined baby who was exposed to the virus during overseas holidays.

Texas State Health Department spokesman Chris Van Deusen said the issue was one of four related to international trips so far this year, none of which was part of the Western Texas explosion.

Others were two in Houston last month and one report this week at Rockwall County, east of Dallas.

In the case of Travis District, members of the child’s family were vaccinated and is isolated at home and no exposure was expected, Walkes said.

She could not give the baby’s exact age.

Officials at the press conference asked people to be vaccinated if they are not already.

“We are here to say quite simply: measles can kill, ignorance can kill and denying the vaccines eventually kills it,” said Rep.

School officials in two Texas cities each reported a rubella case this week, but Van Deusen said no infections were confirmed.