It is a step back on the sanitary component. For the first time in almost ten years, the United States announced on Wednesday, February 26, a death of measles in Texas, plagued by an epidemic of this very contagious disease whose importance was minimized by the new Minister of Health Robert Kennedy Jr. This first death occurred in a child, according to the Health Authorities of Texas, only specifying that he was ” vaccinated “. He died “in the last 24 hours,” said the municipality of Lubbock, in the northwest of the State, where he was hospitalized.
This death occurs while more than 130 cases have been identified since the start of the year in Texas and in the neighboring state of the New Mexico, and a handful of others elsewhere in the country. While eighteen people have been hospitalized in Texas, “this measles epidemic is the most important that the state has known for over 30 years,” said Katherine Wells, director of public health in Lubbock, in the New York Times. Meals had been declared eradicated to the United States in 2000 thanks to vaccination, but contamination has increased in recent years, thanks to the decline in vaccination rates recorded from the Cavid-19 pandemic.
Asked about the death of the child, Robert Kennedy Jr, criticized for his anti -vaccini positions, had indicated that “two people” had died. Contacted by AFP, the Ministries of Health of Texas and New Mexico, however, said they were not aware of a second death. The new Minister of Health has also minimized the seriousness of the situation, ensuring that it was “not unusual”. “We have epidemics of measles each year,” he said, saying, however, “following the evolution of the situation”.
“A deadly virus”
If the resumption of measles cases does not date from this year, their increase remains very worrying, insist the caregivers. “It is a deadly virus,” recalled at a press conference Lara Johnson, chief doctor of the Lubbock children’s hospital, evoking the respiratory and neurological complications that he can cause. And to entrust: “When I obtained my doctor’s diploma in 2002, I was convinced that I would never see a measles epidemic, unless I choose to work abroad”. Up to three children with measles out of 1,000 will die from respiratory or neurological complications, according to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases in the United States.
For Amesh Adalja, specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Johns Hopkins, “it was only a matter of time” before the United States again recorded the dead of measles. Before the development of a vaccine in the early 1960s, the disease killed hundreds of children each year in the country. She continues to make tens of thousands of deaths around the world. In the United States, the last death-related death dates back to 2015 when a woman from Washington was died of pneumonia caused by the virus. She was vaccinated but was under immunosuppressive treatment.
Growing distrust of vaccination
Despite this risk, more and more Americans decide not to have their children vaccinated against this disease, against the backdrop of increasing distrust of health authorities and pharmaceutical laboratories. “Measles is the most contagious virus we know […] And it is very likely that we will begin to attend epidemics of other diseases avoidable by vaccination, as well as a decrease in these vaccination rates, “alert Catherine third, epidemiologist of infectious diseases at the Uthealth Houston, at the microphone of Cnn.
In this context, many health professionals are concerned about the influence that Robert Kennedy Jr could have, who has relayed false information about vaccination in the past. Note that in “The Measles Book”, published by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccin non-profit organization he founded, Robert Kennedy wrote that “measles epidemics were made to create fear”. The new minister notably mentioned a link between the ROR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) and autism, a theory resulting from a rigged study and many times denied.
Most of the measles cases identified this year in Texas have been in a county with the large population Mennonite, an ultra -conservative religious community, which is reminiscent of the 2019 epidemic which occurred in Orthodox Jewish communities of New York and New Jersey, with more than 1,100 cases.