Pennsylvania Reports Fifth Measles Death in Widening Crisis

Pennsylvania has reported its fifth measles-associated death this year, as the US continues to suffer through its worst outbreak in decades.

(Bloomberg) -- Pennsylvania has reported its fifth measles-associated death this year, as the US continues to suffer through its worst outbreak in decades. 

In a statement Wednesday, the state’s Department of Health said the fifth death was in an unvaccinated Lancaster County resident. Pennsylvania is the hardest hit state in the US. 

The announcement comes as the state and federal health agencies have been feuding over whether the deaths are measles related. After Pennsylvania notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about its first two measles-related deaths in August, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly questioned them and suggested Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro fabricated the deaths for political gain. Shapiro then blamed Kennedy for sowing distrust in vaccines. 

The CDC at first declined to include the deaths in its official measles outbreak tally. It’s subsequently included two of them. 

The CDC and HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Pennsylvania hadn’t recorded a measles-related death in 35 years before this summer. The state’s outbreak has now hit 943 cases this year, with 176 people hospitalized. Less than 1% of the confirmed cases happened in people who’d been fully vaccinated against measles.

The US’s total measles cases are at a 35-year high, with 3,669 confirmed cases in 45 states as of Sept. 24. 

Pennsylvania’s health department stresses that the best protection against measles is to get two doses of the combined measles, mumps and rubella shot, which prevents 97% of infections. Unvaccinated people are at risk of pneumonia and brain swelling from the highly contagious respiratory virus. 

In August, President Donald Trump signed an executive order recommending that the MMR vaccine be split into three shots. If implemented, this would force parents to make more trips to the doctor to get the same protection against diseases for their young children, which could raise the risk that some miss immunizations.

(Updated with background and case numbers from the sixth paragraph.)