Pennsylvania seeks CDC help amid dispute over US measles deaths
The CDC and officials from the US state differ over how four deaths should be classified as cases continue to spread.
Pennsylvania has asked the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for help containing an expanding measles outbreak that has seen several people die, but says it will withdraw the request unless the federal agency recognises four measles-associated deaths reported by the state.
The US is currently seeing the worst measles outbreak in the country since 1991, with several deaths over the last couple of years. Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but has made a comeback in recent years, which some have linked to a rise in vaccine scepticism. The US state of Pennsylvania has been hit especially hard.
In a letter sent to CDC Director Erica Schwartz on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Debra Bogen said the state had begun the process of requesting emergency assistance from the CDC, known as an Epi-Aid.
The state reported 393 cases across 28 counties when the first two deaths were announced on August 25. Pennsylvania now reports 731 confirmed cases across 38 counties and 141 hospitalisations. Of those reported cases, only four people, or less than one percent, are vaccinated.