By Kamal Choudhury
Sept 30 (Reuters) – Pennsylvania health officials said on Wednesday a Lancaster County resident had died after contracting measles, raising the state’s death toll from the disease this year to five, all of whom were unvaccinated.
Two earlier deaths in the county, reported in August, were the first in the US this year, followed by one each in Jefferson and Mifflin counties in mid-September.
“Every one of these deaths was preventable,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, noting that only four of the state’s 943 cases have been in vaccinated people.
Pennsylvania has been hardest hit by the nation’s measles resurgence, with cases up from 903 on Monday across 39 counties.
CDC-STATE RIFT OVER DEATHS
The CDC, however, had confirmed only two measles-related deaths nationwide as of Tuesday without naming the states, amid a disagreement between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over how such deaths are defined.
The CDC said earlier this month it had shifted to using mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics for its national measles death count, rather than relying on state health departments, a change that has drawn scrutiny.
Adalja said the CDC’s new requirement breaks with its usual practice of accepting a state’s classification, warning such disagreements become “its own public health problem” and ammunition for those claiming the toll is inflated.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of another death in Pennsylvania,” the US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, told Reuters in an email statement.
HHS added Pennsylvania had not made a formal request for federal help, but the CDC was ready to deploy epidemiologists to support the state’s identified needs if asked.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Pennsylvania requested emergency support from the US CDC on condition that the federal agency recognize measles-associated deaths reported by the state.
Pennsylvania continues to report a “measles-associated death” when an individual with an active case of measles dies and meets a set of criteria.
MEASLES CASES SURGE IN US
The US has recorded 3,659 confirmed measles cases this year as of September 24, according to CDC data.
Measles is highly contagious but preventable with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, which is 97% effective after two doses. However, President Donald Trump last month criticized the MMR vaccine and called for the combination shot to be split into three separate shots.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month also found that Americans’ trust in vaccines for childhood diseases, including measles, has fallen in recent years.
In Pennsylvania, health care providers gave more than 53,000 MMR doses in September, the state health department said.
(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
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