By Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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MONDAY, April 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The death of a second child in a fast-growing U.S. measles outbreak brought the nation’s top health official to Texas this weekend.<\/p>\n
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> attended the funeral of an 8-year-old girl who died of lung failure caused by measles<\/a>. She was unvaccinated and had no underlying health conditions, The New York Times<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Kennedy spoke with the girl’s family but not during Sunday’s funeral. In a post on X, he said his aim was to console the families quietly and be with the community in its moment of grief.<\/p>\n Then, Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, added: “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the M.M.R. [measles, mumps, rubella] vaccine.”<\/p>\n He has previously touted vitamin A as a measles remedy, leading to concerns about inappropriate and unsafe use.<\/p>\n More than 600 people in 21 states have been sickened during the current measles outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> (CDC). Many of those cases are among unvaccinated people \u2014 most of them children.<\/p>\n Experts suspect the numbers are much higher because many cases go unreported, according to CNN<\/em>.<\/p>\n A Trump administration official told The New York Times <\/em>the Texas child’s cause of death is “still being looked at.”<\/p>\n Sen. Bill Cassidy<\/a> of Louisiana, a physician who cast a key vote in Kennedy’s confirmation, urged him and other top health officials Sunday to address the outbreak.<\/p>\n “Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles,” he wrote on X. “Top health officials should say so unequivocally b\/4 another child dies.”<\/p>\n Kennedy has faced growing criticism of the federal government’s response to the outbreak.<\/p>\n He has ordered a re-examination of a long-debunked claim that the vaccine causes autism<\/a>. The study will be conducted by a well-known vaccine skeptic.<\/p>\n Dr. Paul Offit<\/a>, director of the Vaccine Center at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, told CNN<\/em> that Kennedy’s response to the outbreak has been “abysmal.” He cited Kennedy’s history of decrying vaccines and minimizing measles’ risks.<\/p>\n “The disease has returned because a critical percentage have chosen not to vaccinate their children, in large part because of misinformation provided by people like RFK Jr.,” he said.<\/p>\n Measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 \u2014 meaning that more than a year had passed without spread of the disease, according to the CDC<\/a>. The current outbreak threatens that status.<\/p>\n The MMR shot is recommended for children at 12-15 months of age and between 4 and 6 years of age. Older kids, teens and adults also need one or two doses at least 28 days apart.<\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n There’s a guide to measles vaccination at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n