\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \tRelated story \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tWhat Parents Should Know About Meningitis This Back-to-School Season\t\t<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n \t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n \t \n\tAs Pennsylvania battles the worst outbreak the United States has seen in decades, experts warn that omitting the official death toll skews how seriously the public views the crisis.<\/p>\n \n\tBefore this outbreak, the U.S. hadn\u2019t recorded a measles death in a decade, so the agency routinely relied on the World Health Organization\u2019s standard definition. Now, CDC Director Erica Schwartz says the agency is revising its classification criteria to prevent unrelated deaths from being improperly attributed to the virus.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf someone got hit by a bus, and they happened to have Covid, often that was called a Covid-related death,\u201d Schwartz told The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, pointing to past controversies surrounding cause-of-death data.<\/p>\n \n\tFormer CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry pushed back against the comparison, noting that Pennsylvania\u2019s health department already conducts rigorous investigations to ensure the virus directly caused each death.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDr. Schwartz\u2019s comments are not only not helpful, but contribute to misinformation,\u201d Houry told the publication. \u201cI would focus less on the definition itself and responding to the measles outbreak<\/a>, and that\u2019s what the focus of the CDC director should be.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn Pennsylvania, health providers are actively managing an accelerating surge. The state\u2019s official case count stands at 731<\/a>, though doctors suspect the real figure is significantly higher since many infected individuals manage symptoms<\/a> at home without testing. The rapid transmission has even forced clinicians to treat congenital measles in newborns who contracted the virus in utero or during birth \u2014 a diagnosis most modern physicians have never encountered in their careers.<\/p>\n \n\tState health officials have launched more than 100 pop-up vaccination clinics and are working with local health systems to speed up testing turnaround times. Despite those efforts, medical experts expect cases to rise further as cold weather sets in and unvaccinated students attend school together.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat happens in Pennsylvania won\u2019t stay in Pennsylvania. If national tracking leaves out fatalities, neighboring states won\u2019t realize how quickly an outbreak can escalate \u2014 or how much support their own hospitals might need.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Group](\"https:\/\/www.sheknows.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-sheknows-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\n<\/section>\n<\/p>\n\n\t\tWhy the CDC is Changing Its Reporting\t<\/h2>\n
\n\t\tInside Pennsylvania\u2019s Accelerating Outbreak\t<\/h2>\n