Pennsylvania reports sixth measles death

Pennsylvania authorities on Monday confirmed the state’s sixth death connected to a measles case as the state deals with the highest number of cases nationally.

The Franklin County Coroner released an advisory on Monday stating a 39-year-old woman with “several underlying conditions” died following a recent measles diagnosis that had been treated. The coroner’s office investigated the death Saturday.

“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 said.

Pennsylvania’s statewide tally, updated weekly, does not yet reflect this most recent measles-related death due to Monday being a federal holiday. The state dashboard will be updated Wednesday.

The state has the highest number of measles cases and deaths nationally, surpassing 1,000 total infections last week. This year has marked the worst the U.S. has seen in terms of measles transmission in decades, with more than 4,000 cases confirmed so far.

Despite Pennsylvania now reporting six measles-related deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recorded only two so far, due to the Trump administration changing how measles deaths are counted.

When the first measles-related deaths were reported by the state earlier this year, and local jurisdictions reported not having knowledge of them, federal officials questioned whether anyone died.

In September, the CDC announced it was switching from using the Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, a program through which local jurisdictions provide case information in real-time, to using the National Center for Health Statistics, which is more comprehensive in terms of data but, as a result, lags between when a death occurs and the availability of cause of death.