The number of measles cases exceeded 500 in Texas on Tuesday, according to the state’s health department, which made the update days after a second Texas child died after contracting the highly contagious illness that has been confirmed in at least 20 states.

Texas confirmed 505 measles cases in 22 counties on Tuesday. About 70% of these cases were confirmed in children under the age of 18.

The measles outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow with a total of 505 in the state, according to data published Tuesday.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the measles response in Texas and the U.S., saying it's a "model for the rest of the world." But the comparison to Europe is an unfair one.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Gaines County, Texas, to console the families whose young children have died.

Kennedy Jr. met with the families of two girls who had died from measles in West Texas—and raised doubts about the safety of vaccines. “He said, ‘You don’t know what’s in the vaccine anymore,’” Peter Hildebrand,

The multistate outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates.

West Texas is in the middle of a still-growing measles outbreak with 505 cases reported on Tuesday. The state expanded the number of counties in the outbreak area this week to 10. The highly contagious virus began to spread in late January and health officials say it has spread to New Mexico,

A second child in Texas has died from measles, one of the world’s most contagious illnesses, which was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, several decades after the introduction of a highly effective vaccine.

A public health official in Texas recently warned that the state's ongoing measles outbreak could last a year. Why are cases expected to keep rising?

have doubled.

His previous comments stated that the measles vaccines were "unnecessary and risky." Over 600 cases have been confirmed by the Center for Disease Control in a recent publication dated April 3. There have been two confirmed deaths in Texas because of measles,