Feb. 26 (UPI) — The first measles death in the United States in a decade was announced Wednesday in Texas as an outbreak in that state’s panhandle spread to New Mexico and other portions of the country, health officials said.
The death was of an unvaccinated school-aged child in Lubbock, Texas, Zack Holbrooks, public health director of the South Plains Health District, said, according to USA Today. The child was hospitalized at the time of death.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was the first measles death in the United States since 2015. So far, 124 people have been confirmed with the disease during the outbreak and 18 have been hospitalized.
Officials said New Mexico is experiencing confirmed cases there, as well. Health officials warned on Monday of possible exposure at several tourist sites, two public universities and a popular convenience store outlet Bu-ee’s. Lubbock is the home of Texas Tech University.
The CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services told NBC News that genotype testing has linked the measles strain to one called D8, which is currently circulating in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.
Even with that clue, it is still unclear how the outbreak in Texas started. According to the CDC Texas’s vaccination rate for measles is at 94.3% below the 95% level that experts say is needed to create “herd immunity” that would essentially protect those with and without the vaccine.
The 124 cases are double what state health officials had recorded last week and had traveled from the West Texas outbreak zone to San Antonio and San Marcos.
The officials said the health alert, first issued Monday, warns that a person with measles had traveled from the South Plains outbreak area to South and Central Texas before they knew they were infected.
The unidentified patient had traveled to San Marcos on Feb. 14 and visited a convenience store, Texas State University and a restaurant. On Feb. 15, the person was in San Antonio, where they visited the local campus of the University of Texas, several tourist attractions and a seafood restaurant.
A list of the locations the person visited and the times they were there is on the Texas Health and Human Services’ website.
State health officials say the virus can survive in the air for up to two hours, and because symptoms can begin seven to 21 days after exposure, they were sharing the information so unvaccinated people who also visited those locations can monitor their conditions.
Texas has been fighting an outbreak of the highly contagious virus in the South Plains region since last month.
The virus has been spreading predominantly among unvaccinated children and youth in a state that permits children to be exempt from mandatory vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs.
According to state data, 80 of the infections have been reported in Gaines County where nearly 18% of K-12 students were exempt from at least one vaccine, making it one of the counties with the highest exemption rates in the state. At one school, nearly half of all students were exempted from at least one vaccine.
State officials said that of the 124 cases, only five were vaccinated, while the rest were either unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown.
Statistics show that 101 of the cases are those under the age of 18.
“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities,” DSHS said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it has reported cases in Alaska, California, Georgia, new Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island and Texas.
