Health department officials in Washington State say a woman who died of measles there was the first U.S. measles death confirmed since 2003.
The disease had gone undetected and was only discovered as the cause of death in an autopsy after the patient died in the spring, a release from the Washington State Department of Health reported.
She was most likely exposed to measles at a medical facility in Olympia during a recent measles outbreak, the department said, noting she had been there during the same period as another patient who later developed the typical measles rash and tested as contagious.
"The woman had several other health conditions and was on medications that contributed to a suppressed immune system," the department's statement said. "She didn't have some of the common symptoms of measles such as a rash, so the infection wasn't discovered until after her death."
The official cause of death was pneumonia due to measles. Officials did not disclose her age but said she was not elderly.
This year has seen 11 measles cases in Washington, six of them in Clallam County where the woman died.
From the beginning of this year through the end of June, 178 people in 24 states and from the District of Columbia were diagnosed with measles, with around two-thirds of those cases "part of a large multistate outbreak linked to an amusement park in California," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Measles, effectively eliminated in the United States around 2000, made a comeback recently as a growing number of adults chose to delay vaccinating their children or forgo it altogether.
In 2014, the number of reported cases of measles was the highest since 2000, the CDC reported.
Washington health officials emphasized the importance of vaccinations.
"This tragic situation illustrates the importance of immunizing as many people as possible to provide a high level of community protection against measles," the department's statement said. "People with compromised immune systems often cannot be vaccinated against measles."
The news from Washington comes as California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a law making vaccinations mandatory for children in California schools, removing a previous option that allowed parents to seek an exemption on religious and personal belief grounds.
President Obama echoed the urgings to parents about vaccinations.
"You should get your kids vaccinated — it's good for them," the president said. "We should be able to get back to the point where measles effectively is not existing in this country."
