The U.S. Just Reported Its First Confirmed Measles Death in 12 Years

The woman was taking medications that suppressed her immune system due to other conditions, and this made it very hard for her body to fight another infection. It was effectively too late to do anything, unfortunately.

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. Within about three weeks of exposure to someone with measles, it’s possible to develop the disease. The woman was from Clallam Country, which is located in northwestern Washington. “It seems a reasonable conclusion that this death occurred because of inadequate immunization levels, but more epidemiological investigation will have to take place to find out”.

There have been 176 cases of measles in the United States so far this year, with 117 of those cases linked to the Disney outbreak, according to the USA Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Measles is highly contagious and easily transmitted but it is rarely fatal.

“I think what’s heaviest on our minds is the tragedy of it all, a young woman dying from a disease that is preventable”, said Dr. Jeanette Stehr-Green, Clallam County health officer.

“It’s very sad that we have a death from measles in the USA”, she said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. Health officials do, however, say that death is extremely rare. It causes fever, red and sore eyes, runny nose, cough and a rash. In 1954, John F. Enders and Dr. Thomas C. Peebles collected blood samples from several ill students during a measles outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts.

Measles used to be life-threatening before the vaccine was invented. In 1963, the first measles vaccine was introduced.

“The whole point of widespread immunization is knowing that there will be a subset of people who may lose immunity by becoming immune-compromised or can not be vaccinated for medical reasons”, Schleiss said.

President Barack Obama also urges people, especially parents, to have their children vaccinated, saying that “the science is pretty indisputable”, Washington Post reported. “We really rely on people who can be vaccinated to protect those for whom vaccine protection isn’t available”, such as the woman with a depressed immune system.