The unnamed woman’s official cause of death was “pneumonia due to measles”, the Washington State Department of Health announced in a statement.
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The latest death was reported two days after California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law making it harder for parents in his state to opt out of vaccinating their children for communicable diseases.
He also said that the affected woman did not exhibit show one of the most common symptoms of measles like rashes, therefore the disease was not discovered until an autopsy was performed on her body.
In 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014, there were more reported measles cases compared with previous years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last December a non-fatal measles outbreak took place in Disneyland, California which infected more than 140 people throughout the country and in Mexico and Canada but this case is not related to that, according to Washington State Department of Health. Washington has had 11 measles cases this year, six of them in Clallam County.
She was there at the same time as another person who turned out to have been contagious with the virus.
“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 cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons”, Schleiss said. In addition to the measles, the woman was also suffering from an array of other health conditions. Tests back this week from an autopsy revealed she died of pneumonia due to measles.
In 2000, the CDC declared measles as eradicated in the United States, meaning there was no more endemic transmission.
She was on medications that contributed to her weakened immune system, he said.
The young woman had been vaccinated earlier in her life, but had health problems making the vaccination ineffective. “People with compromised immune systems can not be vaccinated against measles”. Those in the US who remain opposed to vaccinations include some religious communities, families practicing alternative medicine and libertarians who shun government interference. Within about three weeks of exposure to someone with measles, it is possible to develop the disease.
A registered nurse in the USA draws a dose of mumps-measles-rubella, or MMR vaccine.
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“She was at that medical facility when one of our cases was present”.
