“We have measles outbreaks every year,” he added. Mr. Kennedy has also said in the past that immunizations against measles and some other infectious diseases are unnecessary and risky.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday said the nation's major measles outbreak is "not unusual," as a child who was not vaccinated died from the virus in West Texas.

When Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy answered questions during the first cabinet meeting of the new Trump administration, he incorrectly described the number of people who died in a West Texas measles outbreak and the reason people were hospitalized.

Here’s what to know about the outbreak after the first U.S. death since 2015 from the highly contagious—but preventable—respiratory disease.

The first measles death in the growing outbreak in West Texas was a school-aged child. The child was unvaccinated and had been hospitalized in Lubbock, Texas, said Lauren Adams, Lubbock city spokesperson. This is the first US measles death since 2015, when a woman in Washington state died.

The effectiveness of the vaccine, coupled with rising vaccination rates, led to such low rates of measles that it was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. In recent years, though, the virus has made a resurgence, as childhood vaccination rates have dropped nationwide.