Two measles-associated deaths confirmed in Pennsylvania, health officials say<\/p>\n
LANCASTER, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n
Two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania were announced by the state Department of Health on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
“These mark the first deaths related to measles within the Commonwealth in 35 years,” state health officials said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Both people were unvaccinated and lived in Lancaster County, the statement said. Their names were not released.<\/p>\n
“My deepest sympathies are with the loved ones who are facing this unimaginable loss,” Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen said. “Because measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades, people are not familiar with this disease and don’t fully understand the potential severity of the illness. We want to ensure every Pennsylvanian has the information they need to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities. As a physician, I want to make sure that people understand that the MMR vaccine is safe and provides the best protection we have against measles.”<\/p>\n
Update on Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak from governor and health secretary: Watch full video of the news conference below.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania has seen 393 confirmed measles cases this year, the most since 1992, with nearly 20% of those cases resulting in hospitalization, Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference with Bogen on Tuesday. He said every case involved someone who was not fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n
“This is a serious and a growing problem across the country and right here in our commonwealth,” Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
Last week, UPMC said a case of measles was confirmed<\/a> in a patient who had been seen at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n “Folks are spreading skepticism about things like the MMR vaccine without any evidence to back up their claims. That scares a parent who’s just trying to do the right thing by their kids, and it plays a role in why so many people right now are getting measles for the first time in decades,” Shapiro said.<\/p>\n According to new federal data, overall kindergarten vaccination rates have dipped<\/a> and the rate of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania’s health secretary is urging people to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n “The MMR vaccine is backed by decades of research and real-life, real-world proof that it is the best way to protect you and your family from measles, providing 97% lifelong protection after two doses,” Bogen said.<\/p>\n Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two measles-associated deaths confirmed in Pennsylvania, health officials say LANCASTER, Pa. \u2014 Two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[14992,262686,269440,163,521,85,46,23018,118298,13380,269438,37092,11663,1266,13931,25448,269439,83121,1661],"class_list":["post-595821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-case","tag-commonwealth","tag-first-death","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-last-week","tag-measle","tag-measles","tag-measles-associated-death","tag-one","tag-pennsylvania","tag-people","tag-state-department","tag-statement","tag-tuesday-morning","tag-upmc","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}