Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania health officials on Tuesday confirmed two more deaths associated with measles involving a resident of Jefferson County and a resident of Mifflin County.<\/p>\n
The state has now reported four measles-related deaths amid a growing outbreak that has sickened nearly 700 people this year. The deaths mark the state\u2019s first related to the highly contagious disease in three decades.<\/p>\n
Both residents tested positive for measles and were unvaccinated, state officials said. They declined to release any additional information on the deaths, citing privacy laws.<\/p>\n
An 18-year-old in Mifflin County had died due to measles complications, the county coroner said in a news release Tuesday. The cause of death was acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, \u201ca rare and severe neurological complication of measles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur thoughts remain with the family and all those affected by this loss,\u201d coroner Andrea Alcalde wrote in the news release. She noted that measles deaths are rare but the virus can lead to serious illness and death.<\/p>\n
The death of a 40-year-old woman was reported over the weekend by Jefferson County\u2019s coroner, an elected Republican. She had also severe respiratory conditions and died of respiratory failure after showing signs of measles. <\/p>\n
She had been exposed to a person with a lab-confirmed case of measles, and the coroner on Monday said he had ordered a postmortem measles test and was updating her death certificate to indicate she died due to a \u201cprobable\u201d case of measles and other underlying conditions.<\/p>\n
The coroner did not immediately return a call for comment.<\/p>\n
According to the health department\u2019s measles outbreak website, Pennsylvania defines a \u201cmeasles-associated death\u201d as one that occurs within 30 days of symptom onset in a person with clinical evidence of infection, a positive laboratory test, and who did not die of another unrelated cause, like a car crash.<\/p>\n
Since last month, state and federal officials have sparred over whether two other deaths<\/a> reported in Pennsylvania were tied to the state\u2019s measles outbreak.<\/p>\n In its latest update Friday, the CDC still had not listed those deaths on its website highlighting data<\/a> on ongoing measles outbreaks around the country. On Monday, federal health officials said the state had not reported the death in Jefferson County to them. <\/p>\n In announcing the two earlier deaths, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a> criticized President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for spreading misinformation about vaccine safety through his longtime anti-vaccine activism. Kennedy then accused the state of \u201cfabricating\u201d the deaths, although he later said one had been caused by measles<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lancaster County\u2019s coroner has said he investigated one death caused by measles<\/a>, in an infant with a deadly genetic disorder that made her vulnerable to respiratory infections. <\/p>\n