18-year-old dies in Pennsylvania's 4th measles-associated death

Pennsylvania officials have reported a fourth measles-associated death, an 18-year-old resident of Mifflin County, according to the county coroner’s office.

The Mifflin County coroner’s office said in a Facebook post that the cause was acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare and severe neurological complication of measles.

The death is the latest in a statewide outbreak that has produced nearly 700 reported illnesses across 38 counties so far this year, including about 100 cases in the last seven days. State officials say these are the first measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in 35 years.

On Saturday, a 40-year-old woman from Jefferson County, a rural area in western Pennsylvania, died of measles complications. Last month, two measles-infected infants died in Lancaster County, in the southeastern part of the state.

None of the four were vaccinated, according to the state health department. The infants were too young for vaccinations, according to current recommendations.

“My thoughts are with the two families who lost loved ones to this highly contagious virus, as Pennsylvania faces the worst measles outbreak in more than three decades,” state health secretary Dr. Debra Bogen said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the two most recent adult deaths. “We remain committed to working with our partners across Pennsylvania to stem this outbreak and prevent more deaths.”

The United States is enduring its worst year for measles since 1991 and has seen seven reported measles-associated deaths in the last two years — more than the combined total of reported deaths over the previous three decades.

The nation eliminated domestic measles spread in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, but those rates have fallen below the 95 percent coverage needed to prevent outbreaks. In November, international health officials will meet to determine whether the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles-free status.

Fewer children are receiving routine vaccines because of parental waivers, health care access issues and disinformation. More recently, Trump administration health officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have questioned and sown doubt about the established safety of vaccines while defunding local efforts to improve vaccination rates.

Bogen said the state remains committed to ensuring people have facts about measles and access to the MMR vaccine, “which kept measles outbreaks at bay for decades.”