A Lancaster County, Pennsylvania coroner has confirmed that measles caused the death of one of two infants whose deaths were reported amid the state’s growing measles outbreak, according to the Associated Press, even as the CDC’s own website continues to carry a disclaimer declining to officially count either death.
The Two Infants
Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni released details on both deaths Wednesday, in response to a state right-to-know law request filed by WPMT-TV, Fox 43.
Mary Stoltzfus was 6 weeks old when she died at her home on August 18. She had been born with a condition called Amish lethal microcephaly, a genetic defect causing an unusually small head and underdeveloped brain; children with the condition typically live six months or less, leaving her highly vulnerable to infection. “A measles infection killed her,” Diamantoni told the Associated Press directly. His office did not perform an autopsy on her, since the cause of death was determined by the doctors who had been caring for her.
Ivan Miller died on August 14, shortly after birth, of a ruptured spleen. Diamantoni’s office did perform an autopsy on him, and it’s important to be precise here: the coroner attributed his death to the ruptured spleen itself, not to measles. Exactly how and when that rupture occurred remains under investigation. Neither infant was old enough to have been vaccinated.
The CDC Won’t Say Whether Either Death Counts
Diamantoni said he reported his conclusions to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of this reporting, the CDC has not said whether it will count either death as measles-associated, and its website still carries a disclaimer about them.
That disclaimer has itself been unstable. At one point, the CDC’s measles webpage noted two measles-associated deaths, then was changed to say the agency wasn’t counting the two deaths until it reviewed additional information. As of its most recent update, the page reads only that the CDC “will update its reporting as additional information becomes available and relevant reviews are completed,” and still doesn’t reflect either Pennsylvania death, despite a county coroner having now directly and publicly attributed one of them to measles.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged Diamantoni’s conclusion that one death was measles-related in a social media post last week, a rare instance of the federal government’s own vaccine-skeptic health secretary confirming a measles death while the CDC’s official tracking page continues to withhold that same confirmation.
The Outbreak Keeps Growing
Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak, its largest since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, continues to expand. State officials said Wednesday there are now more than 620 confirmed cases across 37 counties this year. Both individuals whose deaths were reported in Lancaster County were unvaccinated, according to the state health department.
The underlying vulnerability driving outbreaks like this one traces back to declining vaccination rates. The CDC recommends two doses of the MMR vaccine, one dose is about 93% effective against measles, two doses roughly 97%. But national coverage has been slipping: during the 2025-2026 school year, only 92.4% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, marking the third straight year of declining coverage and a drop from the 95.2% seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. Herd immunity against measles generally requires coverage above 95%, meaning the country has now spent several consecutive years below the threshold needed to reliably prevent outbreaks like Pennsylvania’s from taking hold.
Acting Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen urged residents to get vaccinated: “We want to ensure every Pennsylvanian has the information they need to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities. As a physician, I want to make sure that people understand that the MMR vaccine is safe and provides the best protection we have against measles.”
Why the Timing Matters Internationally
This isn’t just a domestic health story. In November, international health officials are scheduled to meet to determine whether the United States and Mexico have lost their official measles-free status, a designation the U.S. earned in 2000 specifically for eliminating sustained domestic transmission of the virus. A sustained, expanding outbreak like Pennsylvania’s, paired with a federal health agency that appears reluctant to formally confirm a measles death a county coroner has already attributed directly to the virus, doesn’t help the case that the elimination status has been maintained.
The Bottom Line
A Pennsylvania county coroner has done what the CDC’s own tracking page still won’t: directly and publicly confirm that measles killed a 6-week-old infant. The second infant’s death, from a ruptured spleen, remains under investigation and hasn’t been attributed to measles by the coroner himself. Both deaths occurred amid an outbreak that has now spread to 37 counties and counting in a state and a country, where vaccination rates have fallen below the threshold needed to prevent exactly this kind of spread.