First measles death reported in West Texas after outbreak

LUBBOCK, Texas — A person who contracted measles in West Texas has died, the first fatality in the state from the highly infectious disease, health officials said on Wednesday.

The Gaines County resident died in Lubbock, according to Zach Holbrooks, public health director and executive director of the South Plains Public Health District, in an email to USA Today. It was unclear how old the person was.

According to KLBK, the victim was an unvaccinated school-aged child.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center spokesperson Melissa Whitfield also confirmed the death to The Associated Press, stating that the patient died overnight. The death was also confirmed to NBC News by Katherine Wells, the director of public health for Lubbock’s health department,

Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the AP reported.

According to the state health department, the outbreak, mostly in the rural areas of West Texas, has expanded to 124 cases across nine counties, according to the news organization.

State data shows that the victims have been mostly people who were not vaccinated or had no known vaccination status, USA Today reported. Eighteen people have been hospitalized. Five cases were vaccinated, but the rest were unvaccinated, according to KLBK. There were also nine cases in Lea County, New Mexico, the television station reported.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours.

A rash usually appears about 14 days after a person is exposed, the CDC said. The rash spreads from the head to the trunk to the lower extremities.

Patients are considered to be contagious from four days before to four days after the rash appears.

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