(SRN NEWS/REUTERS) – The CDC reported on Wednesday that the country has suffered its first measles-related death, weeks after Pennsylvania health officials reported the first two of four measles-associated deaths in its state.
The CDC had not confirmed those deaths and raised questions about whether they were due to measles. The U.S. has had 3,471 measles cases this year as of September 17, according to the agency.
A Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spokesperson declined to confirm where the death had occurred. The agency said it had received a report from a state in which measles was listed as the underlying cause of death and that its National Center for Health Statistics had verified the death.
A Bloomberg News report said the death reported by the CDC on Wednesday was one of the Pennsylvania deaths.
“A standardized definition (of measles-related death) is very important, so that the cases can be counted objectively. If different agencies count deaths differently, it is very confusing and leads to a lack of transparency and trust,” said Kawsar Talaat, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Pennsylvania, the hardest hit from the outbreak, has reported four measles-associated deaths so far this year, and had 835 cases as of September 23. The state’s health department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The deaths have become the focus of a public dispute between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Health (HSS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has said only one of the deaths resulted from measles.
HSS said last week it was working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to develop a standardized case definition for measles deaths, as the outbreak grows across the country.
This work is intended to promote consistent classification and reporting of measles deaths across jurisdictions, the agency said.
HSS shifted to using mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics for its national measles death count, moving away from its reliance on state health departments — a change that has drawn scrutiny.
(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Maju Samuel, Caroline Humer and Shilpi Majumdar)