An 8-year-old girl with measles died Thursday morning, the second measles-related death in an ongoing outbreak that has infected nearly 500 Texans since January.
Her funeral was Sunday at a church in Seminole followed by a private burial.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, visited the West Texas town that has been the epicenter of the outbreak Sunday. Kennedy said in a social media post Sunday afternoon that he traveled to Gaines County to comfort the family of the child, Daisy Hildebrand, and to support Texas health officials.
"My intention was to come down here quietly to console the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief," Kennedy wrote. He went on to describe the resources he deployed to Texas in March after another school-aged child died from measles, claiming that the "growth rates for new cases and hospitalizations have flattened" since Kennedy sent a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state reported 59 new cases in three days last week.
The child who died Thursday was not vaccinated and had no known underlying health conditions, said a spokesperson for University Medical Center in Lubbock, where the child had been hospitalized. The child died from "measles pulmonary failure," the Texas Department of State Health Services reported Sunday.
"This unfortunate event underscores the importance of vaccination," Vice President of University Medical Center Aaron Davis said in a statement. "We encourage all individuals to stay current with their vaccinations to help protect themselves and the broader community."
The death comes about five weeks after 6-year-old Kayley Fehr, died from measles, the first such death in the country in a decade. Fehr's parents said that their stance on vaccination did not change after their daughter's death.
The West Texas outbreak has sickened 481 people, most of whom are unvaccinated children, according to the state health department.
The outbreak began in Gaines County, located about 90 minutes southwest of Lubbock on the New Mexico border. Since then, cases have been reported in 18 other Texas counties. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked measles cases in Oklahoma and New Mexico with the Texas outbreak. And the World Health Organization reported that cases in Mexico were linked to Texas.
Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads through respiratory droplets passed through the air by breathing, coughing and sneezing. Vaccination is the safest way to build immunity to the virus. Two doses of MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective, according to the CDC.
A CDC spokesperson said in an email that Kennedy’s visit to Texas on Sunday resulted in discussions with Texas state health officials to deploy a second CDC response team to West Texas to further assist with the state’s efforts to protect its citizens against measles and its complications.
State health officials have said that the outbreak could persist for months. It has spread most quickly in pockets of Texas with below-average vaccination rates. In Gaines County, where a large unvaccinated Mennonite community resides, 315 people have been infected.
Doctors typically recommend all children get two doses of the MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 through 15 months and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age.
Parents of infants aged 6 to 11 months living in outbreak areas should consult their pediatrician about getting the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, Sara Safarzadeh Amiri, chief medical officer for Odessa Regional Medical Center and Scenic Mountain Medical Center, said on Sunday.
Amiri said she was unaware of the second reported death but that it is not unexpected given the continued spread of the outbreak.
So far, 56 measles patients in Texas have been hospitalized, according to state health officials.
Terri Langford contributed to this report.