The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday it would deploy additional support to Pennsylvania after the state requested assistance to help investigate its ongoing measles outbreak.
The support comes through the Epi-Aid program, a rapid CDC response that helps investigate and contain urgent public health threats. These include infectious and noninfectious disease outbreaks. State officials retain overall leadership of the investigation, while the CDC team provides technical support.
The federal response comes amid a widening U.S. measles outbreak, with Pennsylvania reporting 1,136 cases as of Oct. 9.
The state’s official measles dashboard also lists five measles-associated deaths as of that date. On Monday, however, the Franklin County coroner ruled that the death of a 39-year-old woman met Pennsylvania’s definition of a measles-associated death, bringing the state’s total to six this year….