An infant in Wisconsin has died of measles, the state's first measles death since 1990, officials said Thursday.
The death comes during an outbreak that has sickened more than 430 people across 13 counties this year. Wisconsin Health Secretary Kirsten Johnson said in a statement: "Any death of a child is a tragedy, and even more so when it is related to a vaccine-preventable disease." She added that measles "can cause serious illness and death" and urged residents to "evaluate their risk and take steps to protect themselves and their family."
The Wisconsin death is the third US measles fatality reported this week. A New York child's death was reported Monday, and a death in Pennsylvania followed Wednesday. The Pennsylvania patient, in Jefferson County, was unvaccinated. The state health department gave no further details, including the person's age.
The gap is the number to hold onto. Wisconsin went more than 35 years without a measles death, long enough that a single case would normally register as a rare event. Three deaths in one week, in three states, breaks that pattern. The details released so far do not show what, if anything, links them beyond the disease itself.
Infants are the hardest group to protect. The first dose of the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) is typically given at around 12 months, so a baby younger than that depends largely on the vaccination rates of the people nearby. That is the practical logic behind Johnson's appeal to "evaluate their risk": a household's decision about vaccination does not stay inside the household.