A child who was not vaccinated has died of measles in West Texas, state officials said. This is the first measles death in the US since 2015, the Associated Press reported.
The school-age child was hospitalized last week at Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock, the state health department said in a statement.
The death followed a measles outbreak that is the largest in Texas in nearly 30 years. Since the outbreak began last month, 124 cases have been reported in nine counties.
Texas health officials and hospital officials confirmed the child's death.
"We are monitoring the measles outbreak every day," said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.
"There have been four measles outbreaks" in the United States this year, and there were 16 outbreaks last year. So it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year, he added.
A spokesman for Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that Texas officials are in regular contact with the state health department and epidemiologists and that vaccination teams are in the "affected area".
"The state will use all necessary resources to ensure the safety and health of Texans," the spokesman said, calling the child's death a tragedy.
According to Texas health officials, the majority of reported measles cases are in children.
The virus has spread primarily through rural, oil-rich areas of West Texas, with cases concentrated in a "close-knit, undervaccinated" Mennonite community, said Lara Anton, a spokeswoman for the health department.