Measles cases in Texas rise to 159, state health department says

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(Reuters) -Measles cases in Texas increased from 146 to 159 on Tuesday, a week after an unvaccinated child died of the disease in one of the largest outbreaks that U.S. has seen in the past decade.

Gaines county, the center of the outbreak, reported 107 cases compared to 98 cases last week and in this period, the state’s health department said hospitalizations rose to 22 from 20.

“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities,” the department said.

An unvaccinated child died of measles on February 26, the first in the U.S. since 2015. The child had no known underlying conditions, the health department said on Tuesday.

The child’s death and the rising hospitalizations in Texas have put U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s vaccine views to the test.

Public health experts have said the Trump administration should be encouraging vaccination at the national level. Kennedy has said the government is providing resources, including vaccines, to tackle the outbreak.

Of the 159 cases, 53 patients are aged between 0 and 4 years, while 74 are between 5 and 17 years of age, according to the health department data. It said 80 of the known patients were not vaccinated and 5 were vaccinated with at least a dose.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said vaccines provide the best protection against measles, a serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and death.

“The investigations into the cases who are currently classified as vaccinated are ongoing,” the state health department said, adding the remaining 74 patients whose vaccination status was “unknown” were also being looked into.

(Reporting by Puyaan Singh and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru ; Editing by Arun Koyyur)