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Marni Rose McFall

By Marni Rose McFall

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A third person has died from complications associated with measles in Pennsylvania amid a fast-growing outbreak in the state and rising cases nationwide.

A 40-year-old woman died on Saturday, the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office has confirmed. Greg Furlong, the coroner, said in a statement, "This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and an unfortunate reminder that measles can be a serious and potentially life-threatening disease."

In response to a request for comment from Newsweek, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shared a statement from CDC Director Erica Schwartz, which read: "CDC was not notified by Pennsylvania officials of this death. Despite repeated offers of assistance, Pennsylvania has not requested a CDC Epi-Aid, which would deploy epidemiologists and provide on-the-ground measles outbreak support."

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The statement continued: "By contrast, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, Kansas, New Mexico, and Wisconsin have officially requested CDC Epi-Aids and worked alongside federal teams to help bring their measles outbreaks under control. CDC remains ready to provide Epi-Aid support to Pennsylvania as soon as the state officially requests our help."

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health told Newsweek over email that the department "maintains a strong working relationship with the professional staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which includes regular meetings, and we will continue to evaluate any additional CDC support as this outbreak continues."

"We are in touch with the Jefferson County coroner and appreciate his commitment to keeping the public informed. The Department of Health is in the process of conducting its own review of the case and will update the public when that investigation is complete," the spokesperson added.

Saturday's death comes after two other measles-associated deaths involving infants were reported in Lancaster County at the end of August. However, there have been questions about the cause of one of them, as county coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said a newborn who died from a ruptured spleen was not found by a forensic pathologist to have died as a result of measles, despite having the illness.

The first dose of the measles vaccine is typically given to infants around 1 year old, meaning neither was old enough to be vaccinated.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro recently criticized HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and said that his "actions and rhetoric that’s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America."

Kennedy Jr. has spent decades questioning vaccine safety and helping lead the modern anti-vaccine movement. But since becoming HHS secretary, he has publicly said the government "promotes" the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, acknowledged that it is highly effective at preventing measles, and said children should receive it, marking a notable shift in tone from many of his past statements.

In a statement published in August on social media, the HHS said that "the MMR vaccine provides the most effective protection against measles and helps prevent its spread."

In 2000, the U.S. declared that measles was eliminated, in large part, due to the MMR vaccine.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health told Newsweek: "The Department’s primary focus remains on stopping the spread of measles across the Commonwealth by educating the public and expanding access to measles vaccination."

A Historic Surge in Cases Nationwide

The infant deaths are the first measles-associated fatalities reported by state or local officials in the country in 2026, and the first recorded in the Keystone State in 35 years. So far this year, over 630 cases have been reported in Pennsylvania, according to the CDC.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is experiencing its highest measles caseload in over three decades. Deaths related to measles recorded since Kennedy Jr. took office have surpassed those recorded in the previous 20 years combined.

Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University's School of Public Health, told Newsweek, "The recently reported measles deaths are sadly unsurprising given the uncontrolled spread of measles in the U.S. for the last year and a half. Despite having eliminated measles from the U.S. more than 25 years ago, we are in this deadly and costly mess because we've allowed measles vaccination coverage to slip."

According to CDC data through September 10, 3,294 confirmed measles cases have been reported in the U.S. so far this year, compared with 2,289 during all of 2025. In 95 percent of cases this year, the vaccination status for the individual was either unvaccinated, or unknown.

States Where Measles Cases in 2026 Surpass 2025

A total of 23 states and the District of Columbia have recorded more measles cases in 2026 than in 2025, as per data from the CDC.

Of the cases recorded in 2026 by the CDC, 18 percent of cases recorded were among those under 5 years of age (592), 45 percent of cases recorded were among those aged 5 to 19 (1,468) and 37 percent of cases were among those aged 20 and over, 1,213.

Meanwhile, 1 percent of cases were recorded among a group of those whose ages were unknown.

"The U.S. has surpassed 3,000 measles—the highest number of cases in a single year since 1991—and the year is not yet over!" Nuzzo told Newsweek. "It is important that we try to stop outbreaks by rapidly identifying and isolating infected people and their contacts. But the only way measles outbreaks stop for good is by increasing vaccination rates."

What Happens Next

In November, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional office of the World Health Organization, is set to meet to determine if the U.S. has lost its status as a country that has eliminated measles.

Elimination does not mean that a disease has totally disappeared, rather, that it is not continuously circulating.

A county-level data set from Johns Hopkins University, published in June 2025, found that there had been a national decline in the MMR vaccine among U.S. children since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and found that of 2,066 counties studied, 78 percent had reported a drop in vaccinations.

"The loss of that status would be embarrassing to the country," Nuzzo said, adding that "it would simply be a confirmation of what Americans already see: measles is now a deadly, costly, ongoing threat in the U.S. that can only be stopped by increasing vaccine coverage in all communities."

Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Matthew Cannon and Anthony Murray.

Update, 09/15/26 05:11 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

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