Many MindedAn infant's measles death in Wisconsin lands as US elimination status hangs
Wisconsin officials announced Thursday that an infant has died of measles. It is the state's first measles death since 1990. Wisconsin's outbreak this year has sickened more than 430 people across 13 counties. Health Secretary Kirsten Johnson called the death a tragedy tied to a vaccine-preventable disease.
It is the third US measles death reported in one week, after a New York child on Monday and a Pennsylvania death on Wednesday. That Pennsylvania case was an unvaccinated person in Jefferson County; the state gave no age. Pennsylvania's outbreak has produced 1,467 cases this year. The US has had nine reported measles deaths this year, eight confirmed by state officials, and seven of them are in Pennsylvania. As of Nov 5, the CDC lists 5,182 cases across 47 states and jurisdictions, the highest national totals since 1991.
This is a setback for health. Before vaccination, measles caused 3 to 4 million US illnesses a year, nearly 50,000 hospitalizations and 400 to 500 deaths. The US declared it eliminated in 2000. Protection from a cheap, long-proven vaccine is now eroding, and infants too young to be vaccinated carry part of the cost.
The data trail is also muddier. After the first Pennsylvania deaths, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested state officials fabricated them and reportedly told the CDC to delete them. The CDC then moved from state-confirmed deaths to slower federal death records, and its count of four deaths is unclear about which deaths it includes. One Pennsylvania death, a woman in Franklin County, remains unconfirmed by the state while its investigation stays open.
Watch the Pan American Health Organization committee, which meets Nov 10–13 to decide whether measles has re-established in the US. No decision has been made, though loss of status is described as likely. Case counts likely undercount true cases.
Source: Ars Technica