A New Mexico-based adult who was infected with measles has died, state health officials said on March 6, with the cause still to be officially determined.
The person’s age and other demographics were not immediately released. The individual was unvaccinated and did not seek medical care, a state health department representative said in a statement.
The person lived in Lea County, which is across the state border near the West Texas region, where a 159-person measles outbreak led to a child’s death. It is Texas’s largest number of measles cases in nearly 30 years and marks the first U.S. death from the highly contagious but preventable respiratory disease since 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, New Mexico health officials have not yet connected the death on Thursday to the Texas outbreak, which began in late January.
That person is the 10th confirmed measles infection case in Lea County. Seven of the cases are of unvaccinated people, and the status of the other three is unknown. Six cases are adults, and the remaining are children under 17.
The CDC said on March 4 it was sending a team to Texas to assist local public health officials in responding to the outbreak.
A respiratory virus, measles can survive airborne for up to two hours, and up to nine out of 10 susceptible people will become infected if exposed, the CDC said.
The agency recommends that children 12 months through 12 years get two doses of the combination measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, which prevents infection from the virus.
Two doses of the vaccine are 97 percent effective at preventing infection, while one dose is 93 percent effective, according to the CDC.
In an editorial published on Fox News on March 2, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote that “vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity.”
He said he was deeply concerned about the Texas outbreak and was directing the CDC and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response to help local health authorities.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) “efforts include offering technical assistance, laboratory support, vaccines, and therapeutic medications as needed. The CDC is in continuous communication with Texas health officials, ensuring a coordinated and effective response to contain the outbreak,” Kennedy added.
He did not tell parents to vaccinate their children, saying “The decision to vaccinate is a personal one.” Self-described as a “vaccine safety advocate,” Kennedy has received scrutiny for his past criticisms of early childhood vaccines, which he alleged are potentially linked to autism.
A month before his return to the White House, President-elect Donald Trump said in December 2024 that if Kennedy were confirmed by the Senate to lead HHS he would give Kennedy the freedom to investigate if any childhood vaccines are linked to autism.
Jeff Louderback and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
