{"id":844072,"date":"2025-04-27T21:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T02:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/27\/first-measles-death-is-reported-in-the-west-texas-outbreak-thats-infected-more-than-120-people\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T21:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T02:12:08","slug":"first-measles-death-is-reported-in-the-west-texas-outbreak-thats-infected-more-than-120-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/27\/first-measles-death-is-reported-in-the-west-texas-outbreak-thats-infected-more-than-120-people\/","title":{"rendered":"First measles death is reported in the West Texas outbreak that\u2019s infected more than 120 people"},"content":{"rendered":"
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State health officials have said this outbreak is Texas\u2019 largest in nearly 30 years.<\/h2>\n
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\n\tA sign is seen outside a clinic with the South Plains Public Health District on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, in Brownfield, Texas. AP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/em>\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy DEVI SHASTRI, Associated Press\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) \u2014 A person who was hospitalized with measles has died from measles in West Texas, the first death in an outbreak that began late last month.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center spokesperson Melissa Whitfield confirmed the death Wednesday. It wasn\u2019t clear the age of the patient, who died overnight.<\/p>\n

Covenant Children\u2019s Hospital in Lubbock didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 124 cases across nine counties, the state health department said Tuesday. There are also nine cases in eastern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The outbreak is largely spreading in the Mennonite community in an area where small towns are separated by vast stretches of oil rig-dotted open land but connected due to people traveling between towns for work, church, grocery shopping and other day-to-day errands. Gaines County, which has 80 cases, has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year.<\/p>\n

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Texas health department data shows the vast majority of cases are among people younger than 18. State health officials have said this outbreak is Texas\u2019 largest in nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n

Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.<\/p>\n

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Associated Press
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Skip to Main Content Health State health officials have said this outbreak is Texas\u2019 largest in nearly 30 years. A sign is seen outside a clinic with the South Plains Public Health District on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, in Brownfield, Texas. AP Photo\/Julio Cortez By DEVI SHASTRI, Associated Press February 26, 2025 1 minute to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":844073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[673,4869],"tags":[5719,9307],"class_list":{"0":"post-844072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-first","8":"category-measles","9":"tag-first","10":"tag-measles"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}