Fourth measles-associated death reported in Pennsylvania
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Fourth measles-associated death reported in Pennsylvania
Fourth measles-associated death reported in Pennsylvania
Sarah BodenToday at 4:27 p.m.
Measles
An 18-year-old has died of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare and severe neurological complication of measles, according to the coroner in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania.
The death was seemingly confirmed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which disclosed that a resident of Mifflin County, as well as a resident of Jefferson County, recently died from measles-associated complications.
The Jefferson County death appears to be a 40-year-old woman who died on September 12, according to the county coroner.
Pennsylvania's health department says laws that county coroners are not subject to prevent the state from releasing additional information. But the department did say both people were unvaccinated.
The passing of these individuals marks the third and fourth measles-associated deaths reported in Pennsylvania this year. In August, the state health department said two residents of Lancaster County died because of measles-associated complications. Those deaths both involved unvaccinated infants.
Pennsylvania's official measles case count is 693, the highest in the United States in 2026. Seventeen new cases have been added since last week.
To determine the cause of death, the health department said it conducted rigorous investigations with cooperation from the Jefferson and Mifflin County coroners' offices, which included a positive laboratory test to confirm a measles infection as well as clinical evidence that the death was due to measles and not another unrelated cause. It said that additional factors, such as whether the individual was exposed to measles prior to their death and supporting medical records, were also considered.
"My thoughts are with the two families who lost loved ones to this highly-contagious virus, as Pennsylvania faces the worst measles outbreak in more than three decades," said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Debra Bogen, MD.
Bogen added her department remains committed to stemming the outbreak and preventing more deaths, which means ensuring people have access to the highly effective measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.
This winter could be devastating for measles
Infectious disease (ID) physicians agree that the true number of measles infections in Pennsylvania is likely far higher than the reported tally, as one to three of every 1,000 children who become infected will die from respiratory and neurologic complications.
"We've known that, anecdotally, just from hearing that there are many people that are sick [and] that aren't getting tested," Amesh Adalja, MD, a Pittsburgh-based ID physician and senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, told CIDRAP News.
Historically, measles has spiked during the winter and spring, said Paul Offit, MD, a nationally recognized ID expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit told CIDRAP News that he's dreading the level of illness and death from the measles that will occur later this year, especially because of the large number of unvaccinated children who are back in school.
"I think we're going to see more children suffering, more children being hospitalized, and more children dying of this disease,” he said.
While Offit believes Bogen is doing everything she can in Pennsylvania, he sees US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other federal officials as either downplaying the crisis or absent in their leadership.
"It's like the world has turned upside down," he said.
These measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania are not bad luck, but the result of people choosing not to vaccinate, said Adalja, who noted that people weren't dying from measles when the nation's vaccination rate was higher.
Prior to 2025, when three measles-related deaths were linked to an outbreak in Texas, the last reported measles death in the United States was in 2015. Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, but the country is likely to officially lose that status later this year.