NBC News
An 8 -year -old girl with measles died in Texas, confirmed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Saturday night. The entity is investigating the exact cause of death.
The little girl was identified by the secretary of the HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr as Daisy Hildebrand, and is the second pediatric death in the middle of an outbreak that extends rapidly and has infected more than 600 people, 500 of them only in Texas since January. It is also suspected that an adult in New Mexico died from measles. These are the first deaths from this disease in the United States in a decade.
Kennedy Jr., who has promoted anti -vaccine theories for years, attended the funeral of the little girl this Sunday.
“My intention was to come here quietly to comfort families and be with the community in their time of pain,” said the official, who also said that “the most effective way to prevent the propagation of measles is the triple viral vaccine,” in an attempt to control the outbreak in Texas.
The hospital where El Niño was admitted, the Medical Center University (UMC) of Lubbock, lamented his death and informed had no known condition that would have complicated his health, beyond that he was not vaccinated against measles.
“We are sad to inform us of the death of a child of school age recently diagnosed with measles. (…) This unfortunate event underlines the importance of vaccination. Measome Hospital Executive, Mark Finderburk.
“On behalf of the UMC health system, we send our thoughts and prayers to the family and loved ones of this child in these difficult times,” he added.
Until Friday, the Texas State Health Services Department reported that 481 measles cases had been confirmed, an increase of 14 % compared to last week.
This includes six babies and young children in a Lubbock nursery who tested positive in the last two weeks.
Two of these children are among the 56 people who have been hospitalized with measles in the area since the disease began to spread at the end of January, according to health authorities.
According to the centers for disease control and prevention, between 1 and 3 in every 1,000 children infected with measles die from respiratory and neurological complications. In addition, approximately 1 in 20 children with measles contract pneumonia, the most common cause of measles death in young children.
The outbreak that began in Texas in January has since been extended to at least two other states.
At the national level, 628 measles cases have been reported in at least 21 states and Washington, DC, this year, according to a NBC News count.
It is likely that the figure is a considerable underestimation, if one takes into account that many people do not test the virus, said Lubbock Public Health Director, Katherine Wells.
Wells and other health officials now urge families to vaccinate their children against measles.
According to CDC, two doses of the triple viral vaccine (MMR) are safe and have an efficacy of 97 % in infection prevention.
The first dose is generally administered between 12 and 18 months, and the second is offered around 5 years, when the child enters the kindergarten.
However, during an outbreak, babies of only 6 months can receive the first dose.
