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Health officials in Pennsylvania have announced another death related to measles, the sixth overall in the state and the U.S. since the beginning of this year.
Officials identified the person who died as a 39-year-old woman from Franklin County. The individual was reportedly not vaccinated against the virus. The county coroner described the cause of death as a “probable acute cardiac event due to possible complications of the measles.”
The state is facing a large measles outbreak, accounting for about a quarter of all measles cases identified across the country since January 1, 2026. As of Tuesday morning, over 4,260 measles cases have been reported in the U.S., 1,152 of them from Pennsylvania alone. Both South Carolina and Texas are also reporting close to 1,000 measles cases.
Notably, the vast majority of people who have tested positive for measles are unvaccinated, with only 3 percent of cases affecting a person who has received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) shot.
Death from measles is rare but not unheard of, with about one to three deaths occurring for every 1,000 cases, some estimates show. The virus can also cause lifetime neurological and/or respiratory issues.
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The vaccine is widely considered the best way to prevent measles infection. In rare instances where a “breakthrough” case occurs (where a person who was vaccinated still gets infected), the symptoms are generally less severe. The shot requires a higher threshold of vaccinated individuals in a given community than other vaccines to be highly effective at stopping the virus’s spread.
Despite a spate of deaths in Pennsylvania being recorded by state officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has so far only recognized two of those deaths on its website.
Measles was once considered “virtually eliminated” in the U.S., due to extremely low counts of infections identified yearly — in 2024, for instance, only 285 cases were documented. But anti-vaxxer and right-wing movements over the past couple of decades have decreased vaccine rates among the populace, resulting in much higher numbers of measles cases over the past two years.
The Trump administration has also gutted programs that have been successful in getting more people vaccinated in the past. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., himself an anti-vaxxer, has placed anti-vaxxers on health advisory panels, and recently indicated to anti-vaccine groups that his work is not yet done.
“Let me be clear. You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” Kennedy said during a gathering of anti-vaxxers last month.
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