First death reported in Texas measles outbreak

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported on Wednesday that a school-aged child who had not received the measles vaccine became the first to die in an ongoing outbreak. The child was hospitalized in Lubbock last week.

The measles outbreak, concentrated in the Panhandle and South Plains regions of Texas, began in late January. As of Wednesday, 124 cases, mostly in children, had been reported. Eighteen people have been hospitalized with measles over the course of the outbreak.

How frequently do measles outbreaks occur in the United States? The United States officially eradicated measles in 2000, meaning that any new cases are imported from exposure elsewhere. Sixteen outbreaks occurred in the United States last year, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, but most involved only a few cases. The current Texas outbreak is the worst in the state in nearly 30 years. The highly contagious respiratory illness typically doesn’t show symptoms until seven to 21 days after exposure, making it difficult to trace the source of an outbreak.