Second child dies of measles in Texas amid outbreak

A second child has died of measles amid an outbreak in west Texas, sparking a rare rebuke of the Trump administration’s top health officials from a Republican senator on Sunday.

A school-aged child receiving treatment for complications of measles died at the University Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, spokesman Aaron Davis said in a statement to the Washington Post on Sunday. The child, who had no known underlying health conditions, was not vaccinated against measles, Davis said.

“This unfortunate event underscores the importance of vaccination,” Davis said.

It is the second known measles death in the United States since 2015. The first was an unvaccinated child who died in Lubbock in February. An unvaccinated New Mexico adult who tested positive for measles also recently died, but the official cause of death is still under investigation.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday that 481 measles cases and 56 hospitalizations have been reported since late January. The outbreak has spread to bordering states, including New Mexico, where there have been 54 reported measles cases.

Public health experts have expressed concern that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the country’s most prominent critics of childhood vaccination, has not addressed the outbreak with what they consider to be sound guidance.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a medical doctor who voted to confirm Kennedy but has asked him to stop linking vaccines to autism, called Sunday for more overt support for measles vaccinations.

“Everyone should be vaccinated!” Cassidy wrote on X. “There is no treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles. Top health officials should say so unequivocally (before) another child dies.”

Though Cassidy didn’t name Kennedy in his post, the secretary has been criticized since the outbreak began for not making a resounding endorsement of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. One MMR dose is 93% effective against measles and two doses is 97% effective, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Instead, Kennedy has focused on vitamin A use to combat the growing measles outbreak in Texas. Vitamin A, which experts say can be beneficial after someone has gotten sick but is not a replacement for vaccination, is typically used in countries where children are malnourished and have vitamin A deficiency.

The outbreaks also come as the CDC recently laid off hundreds of employees.

While many children recover from measles, some die of pneumonia or a secondary bacterial infection. Measles can also lead to a rare and fatal long-term neurological complication that generally develops seven to 10 years later.