Pennsylvania health officials confirm two new measles-associated deaths, bringing total to four as state outbreak grows
The state has now reported four measles-related deaths amid a growing outbreak that has sickened nearly 700 people this year.
Pennsylvania health officials on Tuesday confirmed two more deaths associated with measles involving a resident of Jefferson County and a resident of Mifflin County.
The state has now reported four measles-related deaths amid a growing outbreak that has sickened nearly 700 people this year.
Both residents tested positive for measles and were unvaccinated, state officials said. They declined to release any additional information on the deaths, citing privacy laws.
The death of a 40-year-old woman was reported over the weekend by Jefferson County’s coroner, an elected Republican. She had also severe respiratory conditions and died of respiratory failure after showing signs of measles.
She had been exposed to a person with a lab-confirmed case of measles, and the coroner on Monday said he had ordered a postmortem measles test and was updating her death certificate to indicate she died due to a “probable” case of measles and other underlying conditions.
The coroner did not immediately return a call for comment.
According to the health department’s measles outbreak website, Pennsylvania defines a “measles-associated death” as one that occurs within 30 days of symptom onset in a person with clinical evidence of infection, a positive laboratory test, and who did not die of another unrelated cause, like a car crash.
Since last month, state and federal officials have sparred over whether two other deaths reported in Pennsylvania were tied to the state’s measles outbreak.
In its latest update Friday, the CDC still had not listed those deaths on its website highlighting data on ongoing measles outbreaks around the country. On Monday, federal health officials said the state had not reported the death in Jefferson County to them.
In announcing the two earlier deaths, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro criticized President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for spreading misinformation about vaccine safety through his longtime anti-vaccine activism. Kennedy then accused the state of “fabricating” the deaths, although he later said one had been caused by measles.
Lancaster County’s coroner has said he investigated one death caused by measles, in an infant with a deadly genetic disorder that made her vulnerable to respiratory infections.
He investigated another death in an infant who contracted measles before birth and died shortly after. The coroner, an elected Republican, has said that infant’s death was caused by a lacerated spleen, not measles. Yet prominent physicians have noted measles can weaken a person’s spleen, putting it at risk of rupture.
Both children were too young to be vaccinated.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
