Pennsylvania reports 5th measles-related death in the state

Pennsylvania health officials on Wednesday reported the death of an unvaccinated resident of Lancaster County who tested positive for measles. It’s the fifth measles-associated death in the state since August. The Pennsylvania Department of Health didn’t report when the individual died. The other measles-associated deaths in the state were two infants with measles in Lancaster County, an 18-year-old resident of Mifflin County and a 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County. The last two happened in mid-September, state health officials reported. There have been 943 confirmed cases of measles across 39 counties in Pennsylvania, which is dealing with the largest outbreak of the extremely contagious virus in the U.S. About 176 people have been hospitalized. At least six babies have been born with congenital measles in the state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recognized only two deaths associated with measles this year, although it hasn’t identified in which states they occurred or when. According to the CDC, there have been 3,569 confirmed measles infections nationwide this year. “We are deeply saddened to hear of another death in Pennsylvania,” Emily Hilliard, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement, adding that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CDC Director Erica Schwartz “continue to recommend the MMR vaccine as the most effective way to prevent measles infection.”