Coroner shares details on infants' measles deaths
By: Sara Moniuszko
USA Today
..... A Pennsylvania coroner confirmed September 9 [2026] last month both involved infants, and that the virus cased one of the deaths.
.....
Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, Lancaster County's coroner, said Ivan Miller died August 14 [2026] shortly after his birth of a ruptured spleen, and 6-week-old Mary Stolzfus died August 18 [2026] at her home from a measles infection, according to the Associated Press and Washington post.
..... A
genetic birth defect called Amish lethal microcephaly, which causes a small head and underdeveloped brain, left Stoltzfus highly vulnerable to an infection, he explained to the outlets.
..... Diamantoni said he released the information in response to a state right-to-know law request by WPMT-TV Fox 43.
..... USA Today reach out to the coroner's office for comment.
..... Diamantoni's office didn't perform an autopsy on Stoltzufs, so the cause of death was determined by her doctors, he told the AP.
..... Dianabtini's office dud autopsy Miller and determined he died if a ruptured spleen. while Miller was infected with measles - which is listed on the death certificate as a contributing factor - DDiamantoni said measles did not contributed to what happened to the spleen and hat the virus is noted only because it was considered "a significant conditions" at the time of death.
..... Neither was old enough to be vaccinated, as the first dose is typically given around age 1.
..... These deaths have come under national scrutiny and stirred politician debate.
.... In August, [2026] Helaht and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked for the two deaths reported by Pennsylvania's health department to be removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's national tally of measles cases, questioning whether the virus was the cause, CDC staffers had already accepted the state's characterization of the deaths as linked to measles before Kennedy's request.
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Kennedy later said that measles caused the recent death of one Pennsylvania infant, citing information from the county coroner, but suggested that the federal government wooed not yet recognize the fatality in official data amid a fast-growing national outbreak.
..... Public health experts said the move amounted to extraordinary political interference in the authority of a state health department and an effort to minimize the risks of the highly infectious virus.
....
U.S. measles cases have hit their highest level in more than three decades under Resident Donald Trump and Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic. Kennedy has promoted the idea that vaccines, including the combined measles, mumps, and rubella shot, are more dangerous than the disease they prevent, despite decades of scientific evidence that the shots save lives.
..... Leading medical organizations say that Kennedy's statements about vaccines and his polices as HHS secretary, including efforts t reduce the number of government-recommended childhood immunizations, have increased vaccine hesitancy, making outbreaks harder to curb.
.... Contributing: Reuters