Measles kills one in U.S. after 12 years | West Texas News

A woman in Washington State has died from the measles, marking the nation’s first death from the disease in 12 years.

According to Washington State Department of Health spokesman Donn Moyer, the woman did not show some of the measles’ common symptoms, like a rash and as a result of this, the infection was not diagnosed until an autopsy was done.

Her name and age were not made public.

The woman was hospitalised for several health conditions in the spring at a facility in Clallam County, which covers the northern part of the Olympic Peninsula.

The agency added that the woman was there at the same time as another person who turned out to have been contagious with the virus.

SEATTLE (AP) — A local health official says a woman killed by measles in Washington state had been vaccinated against the disease as a child but succumbed because she had a compromised immune system.

That measure, passed by the Legislature in the aftermath of a measles outbreak at Disneyland that was linked to low inoculation rates, makes California the third state to abolish religious and other personal exemptions to vaccinations.

Perhaps the worst of it, though, Moyer continues to say that the patient was quite probably exposed to measles at the Clallam County Medical Facility, a county which has already reported a simple outbreak of five cases this year.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said the last confirmed measles death in the USwas reported in 2003.

“It’s very sad that we have a death from measles in the USA”, she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear whether the woman had been immunized against measles, though the agency noted that people with compromised immune systems often cannot be vaccinated. The fence of protection that vaccine-induced immunity throws up around all of us protects not only those who are vaccinated, but those who can’t be: infants too young to get the vaccine and anyone who, like the Washington woman, possesses an immune system undermined by medical treatment or biological hazard.

“The last active case of measles in Washington this year was reported in late April”. There have been 178 cases in the country so far this year.

Even when vaccinated, such individuals may lack a strong immune response when exposed to the disease, making them especially vulnerable to outbreaks.

It’s possible to develop measles within three weeks of exposure.