Highly contagious disease spreads in rural west of state with 124 cases across nine counties

A person who was hospitalized with measles has died from the disease in west Texas, the first death in an outbreak that began late last month.

A Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center spokesperson, Melissa Whitfield, confirmed the death on Wednesday. The age of the patient, who died overnight, was not clear.

Covenant Children’s hospital in Lubbock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The measles outbreak in rural west Texas has grown to 124 cases across nine counties, the state health department said on Tuesday. There are also nine cases in eastern New Mexico.

Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to nine out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most children will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.

The outbreak is largely spreading in the Mennonite community in an area where small towns are separated by vast stretches of oil rig-dotted open land but connected due to people traveling between towns for work, church, grocery shopping and other day-to-day errands.