A six-week-old baby girl in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, died from measles, the county coroner confirmed to local press Friday.
Stephen Diamantoni, a Republican first elected coroner in 2007, told Lancaster Online that the baby died at home. "I believe it was the 18th of August," he said.
He also noted that the baby had a genetic condition called Amish lethal microcephaly, in which babies are born with unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains. The condition is caused by a mutation in the SLC25A19 gene, which codes for a protein involved with energy-producing enzymes in the mitochondria and is thought to be important for brain development. About 1 in 500 babies in the Old Order Amish population of Pennsylvania are born with the condition. Infants with the disorder only survive for about six months.
