Pennsylvania Reports 6th Measles-Associated Death

Pennsylvania’s Franklin County coroner reported Monday that the death of a 39-year-old woman investigated Saturday met the state’s definition of a measles-associated death. It is the sixth death in the state linked to the disease this year.

The office said the woman had several underlying conditions, including a past diagnosis of measles with treatment. No other details were released. Privacy laws limit what can be shared, and families “deserve the dignity to mourn in private,” the coroner said.

“This is the first death in Franklin County in many years with a patient with a recent history of a measles diagnosis and meets the definition set forth by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for a measles-associated death,” the coroner’s statement said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,078 confirmed measles cases across 41 counties on Oct. 7, with 207 hospitalizations and five confirmed measles-associated deaths. Four of the cases involved vaccinated individuals, representing less than 1 percent of the total.

The department reported the state’s fifth death on Sept. 30: an unvaccinated Lancaster County resident who tested positive for measles. At that time, confirmed cases stood at 943 across 39 counties, with 176 hospitalizations.

Forty new cases had been logged since Sept. 28.

The department has said death from measles, though rare, occurs in one to three patients per 1,000 cases. Nearly 20 percent of identified cases in the state have required hospitalization. Two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine provide 97 percent lifetime protection, according to officials.

The first two measles-associated deaths reported by the state involved Lancaster County infants who died in late August. Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said one infant died from a spleen laceration. He ruled out measles as the cause because “there was no swelling or enlargement whatsoever” of the spleen, he said. The other death involved a 6-week-old with Amish lethal microcephaly who died from measles, the coroner said.

“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,” Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen said in August.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded that “the announcement appears to have been premature, and the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers.” He noted the coroner had no record of measles deaths.

Two more deaths followed in September. A 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County died “from complications associated with measles,” according to the county coroner. An 18-year-old in Mifflin County died of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare neurological complication of measles.

The outbreak began in late April. The CDC has confirmed fewer measles deaths nationally than Pennsylvania has reported, applying different criteria that require measles to be listed as the underlying cause on the death record.

The Franklin County case remains under state review.