A coroner in Pennsylvania said measles did not cause the death of a baby, after state officials said the baby was one of two people whose deaths were linked to measles.
The baby died from laceration to the spleen, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, the coroner in Lancaster County, told local outlet LNP. The baby did test positive for measles, but the coroner’s office ruled out measles as a factor because “there was no swelling or enlargement whatsoever” of the spleen, Diamantoni said.
“We want to determine the cause of the laceration. And we may not be able to,” Diamantoni also said.
He identified the child as dying on Aug. 14 at a birthing center in Christina Borough.
Dr. Adam Urato, a maternal and fetal medicine doctor in Massachusetts, said in a post on X that the death appeared to have stemmed from birth trauma.
Pennsylvania officials said on Aug. 25 that two people were dead after contracting measles, classifying the deaths as the first in 35 years in the state. Beyond saying both individuals were unvaccinated and resided in Lancaster County, officials declined to provide details, citing a desire to protect the privacy of the people’s families.
Diamontoni then told a county commissioner and news agencies that the only dead person who tested positive in the county recently was the baby, and that the baby died due to a ruptured spleen. He had not previously said that measles was ruled out as a factor.
State officials, following Diamontoni’s initial disclosures, said that the baby was one of the two people whose deaths were “measles-associated.”
“As a pediatrician with more than 30 years of caring for children, I have thoroughly reviewed the case investigation information and sadly can confirm that there were two recent measles-associated deaths in Lancaster County,” Dr. Debra Bogen, Pennsylvania’s health secretary, said in a statement.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused state officials of withholding information on the deaths and questioned whether they had anything to do with measles.
While Bogen said details of the deaths were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which Kennedy oversees, on Aug. 25, the CDC said on Thursday that there was conflicting information about whether the two deaths were actually caused by measles.
“CDC is working to determine what actually occurred,” the agency, which is under new leadership, said in a statement. “These discrepancies raise important questions, particularly because the Governor’s Office has not provided CDC with information relevant to the outbreak and has declined our offers of assistance.”
A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who called the deaths preventable by vaccination, referred a request for comment to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.