Second child dies in US measles outbreak as new cases continue to soar

An 8-year-old child is the third person to die of measles in the United States since the virus began ripping through the state of Texas in late January.

The child, who died Thursday, was unvaccinated and being treated for measles complications, a hospital spokesperson said.

The US now has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024, with Texas reporting another large jump in cases and hospitalisations on Friday. Several other states have active outbreaks, and the virus is spreading in undervaccinated communities.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes, or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines.

Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling, and death.

A 6-year-old child died of measles in Texas in late February and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult on March 6.

What's going on with measles in the US?

Measles has been considered eliminated from the US since 2000.

Cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates.

Local vaccination rates should be above 95 per cent to prevent the spread of measles, in what’s called "herd immunity".

So far in 2025, there have been 607 cases in 21 states, with most of them in Texas, US health data shows.

Health experts fear that the spread of measles in the US could stretch on for another year.

What about Europe?

There were more than 120,000 measles cases in Europe and Central Asia last year – the highest case count in 25 years, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

From early 2024 to early 2025, there were more than 32,000 cases in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

Romania is experiencing the largest outbreak, but European health authorities say cases are expected to rise across the bloc in the coming months.

Most patients have been unvaccinated, and many have been young children.

Globally, an estimated 10.3 million people got measles in 2023, and 107,500 died.