6-week-old infant died of measles, Pennsylvania county coroner says

By Brenda Goodman, Meg Tirrell, CNN

(CNN) — A girl born in Pennsylvania with a rare neurological disorder called Amish lethal microcephaly died of measles at around 6 weeks of age, the Lancaster County coroner said Friday.

“The condition is severe and predisposes those infants to respiratory infections that could ultimately lead to their death,” Dr. Stephen Diamantoni told CNN.

The case is one of two reported measles-associated deaths in the state that sparked a heavily politicized back and forth among federal and state officials about what’s considered a death from measles. As of Friday, the two deaths are not included on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s measles death count for 2026.

Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported the girl’s death – as well as that of a newborn who died from a ruptured spleen and tested positive for measles – as “measles-associated.” They are the first measles-associated deaths reported in the state in 35 years.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health uses “measles-associated” when laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present but the official cause of death is under investigation. Diamantoni said it is not a category his office recognizes.

He hasn’t changed his determination that the newborn’s death was caused by a laceration of the spleen and was not thought to be caused by measles, Diamantoni said. The findings were based on the report of his forensic pathologist.

“He was quite adamant that it was not measles-related based on the size of the spleen, the lack of any inflammation, no fragility of the capsule around the spleen and and the character of the laceration,” Diamantoni said.

Last week, a reporter for the Atlantic interviewed the parents of the newborn. The mother said she had a severe measles infection and required extra fluids. She said she and the midwife believed the newborn had died because of measles, and no one had told them about the lacerated spleen.

Lancaster Online was the first to report the coroner’s finding about the death of the other child.

Amish lethal microcephaly is a genetic condition that causes infants to be born with smaller than normal heads and underdeveloped brains. Babies who have it typically live only about six months and often die from viral infections. It affects about 1 in 500 babies born to old-order Amish communities, particularly families in Lancaster County.

Dr. Paul Offit, who co-directs the vaccine education center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the coroner made the right call in this case.

Even if the child had a condition that would have eventually proved fatal without the measles, she wouldn’t have died when she did if not for the virus, Offit said.

Typically, public health experts expect 1 to 3 deaths for every 1,000 measles cases. For two babies to have died at a point when only 400 infections were reported in the ongoing Pennsylvania outbreak suggests that many cases have gone unreported there.

“This outbreak is much bigger than people are claiming,” Offit said. “And we’re moving into into the winter months … and children are going back to school, and many of them are unvaccinated, and children share their viruses in school. This is getting worse.”

As of Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reports 577 cases, all of them in people who have not received both recommended doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Two doses of MMR prevent a person from getting sick with measles about 97% of the time. Infants are particularly vulnerable to infection, however, because they can’t get the first dose of the MMR vaccine for the first few months of life. Normally, babies get their first dose around a year of age. In an outbreak, doctors may move up that timeline and give babies their first dose as early as 6 months.

“I again express my deepest condolences to the families who are grieving these losses,” Dr. Debra Bogen, Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, said in a post on X on Friday. “We value our continued work with local, state and federal partners responding to the measles outbreak. Together, we have administered a record number of MMR vaccinations in recent months.”

On Friday, the CDC reported more than 3,100 cases across the country but continued to place an asterisk by the 2026 death count.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has downplayed the seriousness of measles, claimed that the two deaths might have been “altogether fabricated” by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who held a news conference to announce them and encouraged vaccination. Kennedy accused Shapiro of using the briefing to score political points.

After Diamantoni’s comments on the child’s measles death Friday, Shapiro responded on social media.

“It’s long past time for RFK to stop playing games with people’s lives, report these deaths accurately on the CDC dashboard, and heed the guidance of actual medical experts so people get accurate information to discuss with their trusted health care providers and can best protect themselves and their children against this deadly disease,” he said.

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