Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday appeared to downplay the seriousness of the West Texas measles outbreak that has killed a school-age little one.

The kid’s dying, the primary from the illness in a decade in the US, was confirmed by Katherine Wells, director of public well being on the well being division in Lubbock, Texas. The kid had not been vaccinated in opposition to the measles.

The outbreak has up to now contaminated a minimum of 124 individuals — largely kids — in rural West Texas.

“We’re following the measles epidemic daily,” Kennedy stated throughout a gathering with President Donald Trump’s cupboard on the White Home. “By the way, there have been 4 measles outbreaks this 12 months. On this nation final 12 months there have been 16. So, it’s commonplace. We now have measles outbreaks yearly.”

Kennedy additionally stated that two individuals had died within the outbreak and that the individuals hospitalized have been accomplished so “primarily for quarantine.”

Wells, of the Lubbock well being division, and one other spokesperson for town stated that there was only one measles dying in Texas up to now. They stated they confirmed it with state well being authorities after Kennedy’s feedback on Wednesday.

If a second dying did exist, town’s spokesperson stated, “we’d learn about it.”

Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS spokesperson, didn’t instantly dispute the secretary’s feedback however stated in an e mail that the CDC was conscious of the dying of 1 little one.

Dr. Lara Johnson, a pediatrician and the chief medical officer at Covenant Kids’s Hospital in Lubbock, stated throughout a information convention Wednesday afternoon that the sufferers who have been hospitalized have been admitted as a result of they have been having bother respiratory and wanted supportive care reminiscent of supplemental oxygen.

“We don’t hospitalize sufferers for for quarantine functions,” Johnson stated.

She added that her group has cared for “round 20” children with measles up to now. A number of of these sufferers required intensive care. Not one of the hospitalized had been vaccinated in opposition to measles.

The Texas Division of State Well being Providers has reported 18 hospitalizations up to now, however quantity seems to be lagging, she stated.

The outbreak has been restricted to elements of Texas bordering New Mexico, which has reported 9 measles circumstances. Well being officers in Texas are working to see if the circumstances are linked.

It is unclear how the outbreak originated.

The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the Texas Division of State Well being Providers advised NBC Information that genotype testing had linked the outbreak to a pressure of the measles virus referred to as D8 at present circulating in Europe and the World Well being Group’s Jap Mediterranean area, which incorporates international locations in North Africa, the Center East and Southwest Asia.

Not one of the samples has been linked to the vaccine.

The dying in Texas is the primary measles dying to be reported within the U.S. since 2015, when a Washington lady died after an publicity at a well being clinic. The final time a toddler died of measles within the U.S. was 22 years in the past, in 2003, in keeping with the CDC.

Measles was thought of eradicated within the U.S. in 2000, the CDC stated, due to widespread use of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR).

Two doses of the shot are 97% efficient in stopping the illness, and the overwhelming majority of U.S. children get them because the CDC recommends: one dose round age 1, and one other round age 5.

However as vaccine hesitancy has elevated over time, fewer children are getting their photographs. The variety of kids with vaccine exemptions reached an all-time excessive in 2023, the CDC stated, of three% of youngsters coming into kindergarten.

In Gaines County, Texas, the epicenter of the present outbreak, the vaccine exemption price was practically 18% for the 2023-2024 college 12 months, in keeping with well being division knowledge.