HQ Team
March 1, 2025: A school-aged child died following an outbreak of measles in Texas, US, and the number of people infected in the outbreak has gone up to 146, the Texas Department of State Health Services stated.
Twenty people have been hospitalised and the child who died was not vaccinated, according to a statement from the department.
“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities. DSHS is working with local health departments to investigate the outbreak.”
The best way to prevent getting sick is to be immunised with two doses of a vaccine against measles, which is primarily administered as the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are highly effective at preventing measles.
Worldwide, there were an estimated 10.3 million measles cases in 2023, a 20% increase from 2022, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Inadequate immunisation coverage globally is driving the surge in cases.
First case in January
The DSHS stated that the first two confirmed measles cases were detected in Harris County in January. Those were the first confirmed cases of measles reported in Texas since 2023.
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness. The virus is transmitted by direct contact with infectious droplets or by airborne spread when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes.
Measles virus can remain infectious in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. Illness onset (high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes) begins a week or two after someone is exposed.
A few days later, the telltale rash breaks out as flat, red spots on the face and then spreads down the neck and trunk to the rest of the body.
A person is contagious about four days before the rash appears or four days after. People with measles should stay home from work or school during that period.
Vaccination prevents death
An estimated 107,500 people died from measles in 2023 – mostly children under the age of five years, despite the availability of a safe and cost-effective vaccine, according to the WHO.
Accelerated immunisation activities by nations, WHO, the Measles & Rubella Partnership (formerly the Measles & Rubella Initiative), and other international partners successfully prevented an estimated 60 million deaths between 2000–2023.
Vaccination decreased estimated measles deaths from 800,062 in 2000 to 107,500 in 2022, according to the global health agency.
