United States Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., traveled to West Texas on Sunday after a second non -vaccinated school child died from a measles -related disease.
In front of a « Make America Healthing Again » tour of the south -West of the United States, Kennedy said in a publication on social media that he was on Gaines county to comfort families who had to bury two young children who have died. Seminole, Texas, is the epicenter of a measles outbreak that began at the end of January and continues to swell, with about 500 cases only in Spain.
He said he also worked with Texas’s health officials to « control the measles outbreak ».
The child, who had no underlying health conditions, died on Thursday from « what the child’s doctors described as a lung failure of measles, » said the Department of Health of the Department of Texas on Sunday in a statement. Aaron Davis, a UMC Health System spokesman for Lubbock, Texas, said that the child was « receiving treatment for measles complications while hospitalized. »
This is the third known death related to measles related to this outbreak. One was another school -age child in Texas and the other was an adult in New Mexico. They were also not vaccinated.
As vaccine misinformation continues to extend, a virologist and a pediatrician share the importance of obtaining vaccines to prevent the spread of harmful diseases such as polyomyelitis and measles.
Kennedy, an anti-preliminary defender before climbing the role of the country’s Secretary of Health earlier this year, has resisted urged vaccination, as the measles outbreak has worsened under his clock.
« The most effective way to prevent measles spread is the MMR vaccine, » Kennedy said in a long statement published on social media. Measles, discomfort vaccine and rubella have been used safely for more than 60 years and is 97 percent effective against measles after two doses.
The teams of the American centers for the control and prevention of diseases have been « deployed », said Kennedy, although the country’s public health agency never broadcast that he had retired during the growing crisis. Neither the CDC nor the State Health Department included death in their measles reports issued on Friday, but added it to their counts on Sunday.
At the national level, the United States has more than double the number of measles that it saw throughout 2024.
It is believed that more than two months, it is believed that the West Texas outbreak has spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas, with a disease of about 570 people. The World Health Organization also reported cases related to Texas in Mexico.
The number of cases in Texas shot by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 others were hospitalized.
« Everyone should be vaccinated »
The North -American Republican Senator, Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, a liver doctor who helped the confirmation of Cinch Kennedy, requested on Sunday the strongest messaging of health officials on a place on social media.
« Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no measles treatment. There is no advantage to achieve measles, » he wrote. « Maximum health officials should say so unequivocally B/4 that another child dies. »
A CDC spokesman stated on Sunday the effectiveness of the measles vaccine, but stopped asking people to succeed.
The spokesman stated the « staff » decision and said that people should talk to their doctor and « should report on the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines. »
Deformation on how to prevent and treat measles hinders a robust response to public health, including claims on vitamin A supplements that have been pushed by Kennedy and holistic medicine supporters despite the warnings of doctors who should be given under the orders of a doctor and who can be too dangerous.
“Dead without need”
Covenant Children’s Doctors Lubbock Hospital, where the first measles death took place, saying that they have treated less than 10 children due to liver problems due to vitamin A toxicity, who found in routine laboratory tests in undervalued children who have measles. Dr. Lara Johnson, medical director, said that patients reported that they used vitamin A to treat and prevent the virus.
Dr. Peter Marks, the former head of the United States Food and Drug Administration vaccine, said that the responsibility for death rests with Kennedy and his staff. Marks was forced to leave the FDA after disagreement with Kennedy on the safety of the vaccine.
« This is the epitome of unnecessary absolute death, » Marks told Associated Press in an interview Sunday. « These kids should vaccinate -this is how you prevent people from dying from measles. »
Canada officially eliminated measles in 1998, but recent outbreaks of the highly spread virus in places like the south -Oest of Ontario have that public health officials urge people to vaccinate.
Marks also said that he recently warned the North Senators -Americans who would have killed more if the administration did not make a more aggressive response to the outbreak. Kennedy was called to testify to the Senate Health Commission on Thursday.
Local experts and health officials expect the outbreak to continue for several more months if not a year. In West Texas, the vast majority of cases are in people and children under the age of 17.
With several states that face outbreaks of the disease that can be avoided in the vaccine – and a decrease in children’s vaccination rates across the country – they are concerned that measles can cost in the United States its state of eliminating the disease.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. According to the CDC, up to nine out of ten people who are susceptible, they will get the virus. The first shot is recommended for children from 12 to 15 months and the second for those of four to six years.
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