A 40-year old woman from Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, died from complications associated with a probable case of measles, the local county coroner said in an interview Sunday evening.
The death had first been announced in a news release, which said a woman died Saturday in the county’s first measles-related death.
A copy of a preliminary death certificate reviewed by The Washington Post on Sunday afternoon states that the immediate cause of death was respiratory failure due to “suspected measles,” chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.
However, Jefferson County Coroner Greg Furlong said Sunday night he is planning to change the death certificate to say “probable,” which came after a meeting with the woman’s family. The woman had contact with another person who had a laboratory-confirmed case of measles.
A finding of “probable” indicates there is more evidence linking measles to the death than “suspected” pending final lab tests expected to return early this week, Furlong said.
Furlong, who was elected coroner as a Republican, said the woman, who was unvaccinated, had exhibited many common symptoms of measles, such as a fever, cough, white spots inside the mouth and a rash.
The woman had spent time with her neighbor, who recently had a laboratory-confirmed case of measles, according to Furlong. Her husband had exhibited signs of measles but did not get tested, he said. The woman had several underlying health conditions and was dependent on supplemental oxygen around-the-clock.
The coroner’s office is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Health in the case, according to the news release. In a statement, the state health department said it is “aware of the information reported by the Jefferson County coroner.”
“We are in touch with the coroner and appreciate his commitment to keeping the public informed,” according to the statement. “The Department of Health is conducting a thorough review of this case and will provide the public with updated information when it becomes available.”
The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Erica Schwartz, said the agency hasn’t been notified of the death.
“Despite repeated offers of assistance, Pennsylvania has not requested a CDC Epi-Aid, which would deploy epidemiologists and provide on-the-ground measles outbreak support,” Schwartz said in a statement. “By contrast, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, Kansas, New Mexico, and Wisconsin have officially requested CDC Epi-Aids and worked alongside federal teams to help bring their measles outbreaks under control.”
This comes as the state has been in the middle of a political firestorm over measles and as Pennsylvania’s cases of the highly contagious disease are climbing. As of Friday, at least 676 people in the state had contracted measles this year, including 108 new cases reported in the last week, according to the latest data from the state health department.
“Many people associate measles with a childhood illness, but it can lead to severe complications in individuals of any age,” Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner and Public Relations Officer Jason Stiver said in a statement.
Last month, the state health department announced two measles-associated deathsin Lancaster County. The cases were quickly thrust into the public spotlight and ignited a feud between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Shapiro accused Kennedy, the founder of a prominent anti-vaccine group, of sowing confusion about vaccines and contributing to the return of the disease that had been declared eliminated in 2000.
Kennedy has contended Shapiro, who is widely expected to run for president, of using the moment for political gain. He had cast doubt on measles as the cause of the deaths for two Lancaster County residents, suggesting that they “may even have been altogether fabricated.”
Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni has said that the pathologist who performed the autopsy determined the primary cause of death for one child who tested positive for measles was a spleen laceration hours after birth on Aug. 14. The pathologist did not believe the virus played a role in that baby’s death, said Diamantoni, a family doctor first elected coroner, as a Republican, in 2007.
Measles can cause inflammation to the spleen, making it more susceptible to life-threatening rupture, the state health department has said.
In the second case, Diamantoni said that an infant from the Amish community died of measles. The six-week-old died Aug. 18 at home after being in palliative care at home soon after birth. The infant was born with Amish lethal microcephaly, a rare genetic condition that is not generally found outside the Amish community.
State health officials have said that “measles-associated” deaths refer to the virus being present, even if the disease is not identified as the immediate cause of death. They have not released more information about the cases, which they have said were the first such deaths in the state in 35 years and the first reported in the country this year.
The CDC has excluded from its weekly updates of a national measles death tally the two deaths that state officials reported. The highly unusual decision — which departs from the agency’s practice of including such data from state health departments — came from Schwartz, The Post previously reported.
As the state health department investigates the Jefferson County death, it will rely on its definition for measles-associated deaths, the department said in a statement. The definition was shared on Sept. 10 with the CDC and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, which creates standardized disease mortality definitions for the country.
The post Pennsylvania woman died from complications of probable measles case, coroner says appeared first on Washington Post.
