{"id":1034284,"date":"2026-08-31T04:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034284\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T04:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:38:24","slug":"coroner-disputes-measles-connection-in-infant-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034284\/","title":{"rendered":"Coroner disputes measles connection in infant death"},"content":{"rendered":"

FULL INTERVIEW | Lancaster County coroner disputes measles connection in infant death<\/p>\n

The Lancaster County coroner clarified that a newborn’s death, initially classified as measles-associated, was caused by a ruptured spleen unrelated to measles, with investigations ongoing.<\/p>\n

\"Nicole<\/a>\"AJ<\/a>LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamontoni addressed the cause of death in one of two cases the Pennsylvania Department of Health labeled as “measles-associated” earlier this week. <\/p>\n

Findings From the Coroner’s Office<\/p>\n

“The state indicated that one case that we investigated was counted as one of the measles-related deaths, but that individual died as a result of a laceration to the spleen,” Diamontoni said. “It’s possible that an infection with measles can cause enlargement and inflammation of the spleen, making it more susceptible to rupture. But, in the opinion of our forensic pathologist, the spleen was neither enlarged or inflamed, and our forensic pathologist thought that, as that was the case, the laceration to the spleen was not related to the measles.” <\/p>\n

The death in question involved a newborn baby who tested positive for measles, as did the baby’s mother. WGAL previously reported that the baby died of a ruptured spleen. <\/p>\n

When asked what might have caused the spleen damage, Diamontoni said the investigation is ongoing. <\/p>\n

The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office does not have information on the second measles-associated death reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. <\/p>\n

“Measles-associated” deaths response<\/p>\n

When asked why the Department of Health classified the deaths as measles-associated, Diamontoni said, “I’m not sure why they would use that term. And that would be a better question for the Department of Health and the governor’s office.” <\/p>\n

As of now, there are 460 measles cases statewide, with 210 of those in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n

The governor’s office responded to our request for comment Sunday, and told WGAL to contact the Pennsylvania DOH. We reached out to the state Department of Health Saturday night, but have not gotten a response.<\/p>\n

Full Dr. Stephen Diamantoni Interview<\/p>\n

Dr. Diamantoni sat down with WGAL News 8’s AJ Sisson Saturday night over Zoom about the findings and the state’s DOH classification. The full interview is below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FULL INTERVIEW | Lancaster County coroner disputes measles connection in infant death The Lancaster County coroner clarified that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1034285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[6517,37555,4446,19949,413908,19635,3153,81768,210,29673,137626,43403,126114,410548,413906,2036,25767,362823,1812,2043,2830,341170,24622,413907,290,413905,67,132,68,51644],"class_list":["post-1034284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-case","tag-coroner","tag-death","tag-department-of-health","tag-diamontoni","tag-disease","tag-governor","tag-governor-josh-shapiro","tag-health","tag-infant","tag-infant-death","tag-laceration","tag-lancaster-county","tag-lancaster-county-coroner","tag-measle-connection","tag-measles","tag-newborn","tag-newborn-baby","tag-office","tag-outbreak","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-department","tag-sick","tag-spleen","tag-state","tag-stephen-diamontoni","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wgal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117188277878179597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1034285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}