A Pennsylvania coroner has confirmed that measles killed a six-week-old baby girl, adding an official record to a death that had become a point of public dispute.
Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni, a Republican first elected to the post in 2007, told Lancaster Online the infant died at home, likely on August 18. Diamantoni said the baby also had Amish lethal microcephaly, a genetic condition marked by unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains. The disorder is caused by a mutation in the SLC25A19 gene, which affects mitochondrial enzymes important for brain development, and occurs in about 1 in 500 babies born into Pennsylvania's Old Order Amish population. Infants with the condition typically survive only about six months regardless of other illness.
The coroner's statement matters because it puts an official, on-the-record cause of death behind a case that had already drawn public scrutiny. It also highlights how a measles outbreak can intersect with rare, life-limiting genetic conditions, complicating both individual prognoses and outbreak death tallies.
The confirmation comes after RFK Jr. had publicly disputed measles death counts tied to this outbreak.