US reports first measles death since 2015

After a child who had not been given a vaccine became ill in Texas, the United States reported its first measles death in ten years.

The school-aged child died overnight after being hospitalised in Lubbock, northwest Texas, the state’s health department said in a statement on Wednesday.

The death comes as the US’s immunization rates are declining, and there is hostility over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as the nation’s top health official.

In Texas and the state of New Mexico, almost all of the cases involving people who weren’t vaccinated, have been reported in this year.

According to health officials, the majority of the cases were found in a group of Mennonite Christian sect followers, some of whom are known to be averse to vaccines.

Addressing the outbreak at US President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Kennedy, who has promoted scientifically discredited research linking vaccines to autism, downplayed the outbreak as “not unusual”.

“Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country”, Kennedy told reporters.

“Last year, there were 16. So, it’s not unusual. Every year, there are measles outbreaks.

The number of measles cases in the US hit a nearly two-decade peak of 1, 274 in 2019, before plummeting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authorities reported 285 cases in 2024, up from 59 in 2023 and 121 the year before that.

No outbreaks of measles had persisted for a year or more, according to the World Health Organization’s declaration in 2000, but that status has since become threatened as a result of growing anti-vaccine sentiment.

The US last reported a measles-related death in 2015, after 12 years without a fatality linked to the disease.

For those who are not immunised, including young children who are typically not eligible for immunisation, measles can be very dangerous.