A child in Lewis County, New York, has died in connection with an ongoing measles outbreak, the state Health Department announced Monday. Officials described it as New York's first known measles-associated death in more than 30 years. The announcement comes amid the worst resurgence of measles in the United States in decades.
The state Health Department said it had offered Lewis County resources for community outreach and assistance with local vaccination efforts. That support addresses both the child's case and the department's broader work with counties confronting the continuing outbreak.
Governor Kathy Hochul declared a State Disaster Emergency in October as measles spread across parts of New York and neighboring states. As of October 24, New York had recorded 178 cases for the year. Of those, 170 were reported outside New York City, while eight were reported within the city.
State health officials said they were coordinating with county health departments and local partners to investigate reported infections. They were also working to make measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations available to unvaccinated people who request them, as part of the response to the outbreak.
Hochul told Reuters in October that New York would seek federal help to contain the outbreak. She did not confirm whether the state had formally requested an Epi-Aid response through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service. The US Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately answer a Reuters request for comment made outside business hours.
National and state reporting show different death counts. The CDC has recorded three measles-related deaths this year without identifying the states in which they occurred. Pennsylvania, described as the epicenter of this year's outbreak, has reported 1,433 confirmed infections and five measles-associated deaths so far this year.
The difference in the reported totals follows a change in how the CDC tracks measles deaths under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The agency now uses mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics. That approach replaced its previous practice of relying on figures supplied by state health departments, changing the source used for the federal death count.
