A 6-week-old infant with a rare genetic disorder died from measles in Pennsylvania, a coroner said on Sept. 4.
The baby had Amish lethal microcephaly, Lancaster County coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni told local outlet LNP.
Amish lethal microcephaly features infants being born with an abnormally small head and an underdeveloped brain. Most of the infants die before they turn 1.
Diamantoni said that his office did not receive a report of the death, which took place in August, but that his office investigated and found details about it. The case was handled by the Clinic for Special Children, which is located in Leacock Township, he said.
“I don’t want to go into details in terms of how we were able to ascertain that information, but I mean, certainly the providers there did not think that it was a case that needed to be referred to the coroner’s office because many of these children end [up] dying of respiratory infections of different types, and the death was not unexpected,” he said.
The clinic said in a statement on Friday that it would not provide details of the case, citing patient privacy.
Diamantoni’s office did not respond to a request for more information by publication time.
Pennsylvania officials on Aug. 25 announced that two unvaccinated people died after contracting measles, and that the deaths were “related to measles.” They declined to provide identifying characteristics, such as age or gender.
Diamantoni then said that his office only found one death involving a baby who tested positive for measles. That death was caused by a spleen laceration and was not related to measles, the coroner said.
Measles vaccination is recommended around 1 year of age, and no earlier than 6 months of age in Pennsylvania.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused officials of speaking too soon about the deaths, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he oversees, has so far not listed the two deaths in its measles database as it investigates.
Kennedy’s department and the CDC did not return requests for comment by publication time.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on X on Friday that questioning the deaths led to conspiracy theories that “denied these families’ pain, invaded their privacy, and undermined public health.” He called on federal officials to report the deaths in the CDC’s database.
Measles, an infectious disease, has been spreading more than usual in the United States since early 2025. The 3,134 confirmed cases in 2026 are the most in one year since 1991.
The largest current outbreak is in Pennsylvania, which has the most Amish people out of any state, according to the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in a Sept. 4 update, listed 577 total measles cases, including 115 in the past seven days. Nearly 100 of the patients have been hospitalized, and two died, the department said.