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." 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." Newsweek has contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Health for comment via email. 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. 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.
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 US 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.
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