The autopsy of a woman from the state of Washington has revealed that her death was due to measles.
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And this determination was only made during the autopsy.
The woman from Clallam County, in northwestern Washington, was most likely exposed to measles at a medical facility during a recent outbreak in the area, the state Health Department said in a statement on its website. Other information such as her age was not released to protect her identity, but they did say that she was not elderly. And she did not have some of the common symptoms of measles such as a rash, so the infection was not discovered until after her death.
Measles is highly contagious and easily transmitted but it is rarely fatal.
In the spring, the woman was in the hospital for several health conditions at a facility in Washington that covers the northern part of the Olympic Peninsula.
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 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“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. Adults born after 1956 should have at least one measles vaccination; a few people need two. “That is the bottom line”, she said. As mentioned by Forbes, there have been other deaths attributed to measles in the past 12 years, but measles as a cause of death hasn’t been confirmed in these instances.
“This tragic situation illustrates the importance of immunizing as many people as possible to provide a high level of community protection against measles”, the state health department said in a statement.
The news comes as California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law regulating school vaccinations, with parents strictly disallowed to claim they cannot adhere to it due to personal beliefs. However, and they not however comment on whether she was vaccinated or not. Within about three weeks of exposure to someone with measles, it’s possible to develop the disease.
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The last active case of measles in Washington was reported in late April. Since three weeks have passed since the last measles case, no one who had contact with the known cases is at risk, Moyer said.
