Parents of Texas girl, 6, who died of measles stand by decision to not vaccinate her
April 19, 2025 – by henghongsaing – Leave a Commen
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GettyImages-175444393 (1).jpgThe parents of the unvaccinated 6-year-old girl who died from the measles are speaking out. Credit: Blackjake / Getty
GettyImages-1646294365.jpgThe little girl was intubated and died a few days later, reportedly from pneumonia, a known complication of measles. Credit: BSIP / Getty
As for home remedies like vitamin A or cod liver oil, he noted that there’s a small place for medically supervised vitamin A use but warned against assuming that it will cure everything.
“Children who are malnourished are at higher risk of severe courses and death from measles, and we know from studies from decades ago that vitamin A supplementation for people who have measles can decrease – but not eliminate – the risk of death and severe disease,” he said.
However, he cautioned about the dangers of overdosing: “It accumulates in the body. It can cause liver damage. It can cause central nervous system damage. It can cause issues with skin – it is not a benign treatment.”
He also dismissed cod liver oil as helpful, saying there is “no evidence that that helps in any way and giving a supplement that has an unknown amount of things in it is unlikely to be helpful.”
The mother of the deceased girl said she believes she was vaccinated herself but still showed symptoms of measles. Dr. Varma explained this is possible.
“Especially for someone who got a single dose of vaccine, there is some chance that, if they are exposed to measles, they can develop measles,” he said. “Often those people have milder disease than people who haven’t been vaccinated, and it sounds like her course was pretty mild.”
His overarching message was simple: vaccines work, and lives are on the line. “The vaccine is safe and it is highly effective, and we have been using it for 60 years at this point,” he said. “There is a lot of misinformation out there and what happens when you have that level of misinformation, is that vaccine rates drop, you end up with large outbreaks like you have in West Texas now.
“We’ve lost a child already in this outbreak and an adult has died in New Mexico. Both of those deaths were preventable,” Dr. Varma added. “Measles is not supposed to be causing deaths in people in the U.S. in 2025, and so this is all preventable.”
