Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SEATTLE (AP) — A woman killed by measles in Washington state had been vaccinated against the disease as a child but succumbed because she had a compromised immune system, a local health official told a TV station.
The woman's death was the first from measles in the U.S. in 12 years and the first in the state in 25 years.
The case wasn't related to a recent outbreak that started at Disneyland and triggered a national debate about vaccinations, according to the Washington State Department of Health. Officials said it was a different strain.
The Washington woman lacked some of the measles' common symptoms, such as a rash, so the infection wasn't discovered until an autopsy, department spokesman Donn Moyer said Thursday.
Dr. Jeanette Stehr-Green, the Clallam County health officer, told KOMO-TV in Seattle that the woman had been vaccinated as a child, but because she had other health problems and was taking medications that interfered with her response to an infection, she was not protected.
State officials didn't say whether the woman was vaccinated, but they did note she had a compromised immune system. They withheld her age to protect her identity, but said she was not elderly.
Measles is highly contagious and spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. However, dying from the illness is extremely rare, Moyer said.
The Disneyland outbreak started in December and eventually sickened more than 140 people across the country and in Mexico and Canada. No deaths resulted from that outbreak.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
