Measles Outbreak in Texas Turns Deadly as Parents Scramble for Shots

The measles outbreak in Texas has now turned deadly. Texas and federal health officials have just reported the first deaths attributed to the still-growing outbreak, which has sickened over a hundred people.

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported the tragic death of an unvaccinated “school-aged” child Wednesday morning. In the first cabinet meeting of the second Trump Administration held Wednesday afternoon, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, stated that two deaths from measles have occurred so far, though he provided no further details. At least 124 cases and 18 hospitalizations have been documented so far, and even vaccine-hesitant families in the region are now rushing to get their measles shots.

The measles outbreak has been ongoing since at least mid-January. It’s largely affected people living in Mennonite communities along the rural South Plains region of western Texas, many of whom are unvaccinated against the highly contagious virus. Health officials have previously attributed the low vaccination rate in these communities mostly to a lack of interaction with the wider health care system, rather than to an explicit anti-vaccination attitude among residents.

A week ago, with only 48 cases reported, the measles outbreak had already become the largest seen in the state in nearly 30 years. Dozens more cases have been documented since, in both western Texas and a bordering county of New Mexico, and officials fear that hundreds of residents have or will ultimately become infected. The fatality reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services is the first measles death documented in the U.S. since 2015.

While this outbreak may not be tied to the anti-vaccination movement, it has convinced some people in the area to change their minds about the value of the highly effective measles vaccine—which is taken in combination with vaccines for mumps and rubella. Vaccine-hesitant parents in Lubbock County, one of the areas hit hard by the outbreak, have reportedly started to send their children to get their shots. Lubbock County is also where the child who died from measles was hospitalized.

“We’ve vaccinated multiple kids that have never been vaccinated before, some from families that didn’t believe in vaccines,” Katherine Wells, director of public health at Lubbock’s health department, told NBC News Tuesday.

In the U.S., measles has been locally eliminated for over two decades. But outbreaks can still occur, particularly in places with vaccination rates below the herd immunity threshold (around 94% of a population). Worldwide, measles remains a major public health threat. In 2023, an estimated 10 million cases of measles were reported worldwide, up 20% from the previous year, as well as over 100,000 deaths that year. Measles infection is also thought to sap people’s immune memory to other common infections.