Pennsylvania reports first US measles deaths of 2026, one an infant

Pennsylvania confirmed two measles-associated deaths this week, the first in the United States in 2026 and the first in the state in 35 years. Both people were unvaccinated residents of Lancaster County. On 26 August the state Health Department said one of the deaths is under review by the Lancaster County coroner, who is examining the death of an infant with a positive measles test.

Secretary of Health Dr Debra Bogen announced the two deaths on 25 August and declined to give further identifying detail. By the next day the confirmed case count in Pennsylvania had risen to 424, with 94 of those diagnoses in the previous week. Seventy-three people have been hospitalised. Cases have been recorded in 28 counties. Roughly half of the earlier tally of 393 sat in Lancaster County.

Two doses of MMR vaccine prevent measles in about 97 percent of recipients. The first dose is due at 12 to 15 months, the second at 4 to 6 years. Infants between 6 and 11 months sit in a gap: maternal antibody is fading and the routine first dose has not yet been given. Dr Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine pointed to that age band as the most exposed group in an outbreak.

Coverage has slipped. Pennsylvania’s measles vaccination rate fell from 96.7 percent in 2017 to 92.7 percent in 2026, according to CDC compilations. In Lancaster County, 87.6 percent of kindergartners were fully vaccinated last school year, down from 95.5 percent in 2017. The county is home to large Amish and Mennonite communities that often avoid routine clinical care. Some epidemiologists think the official case count understates spread for that reason.

The United States declared measles eliminated in 2000. 2026 has already set a post-elimination record for cases. Last year the country recorded three measles deaths: two unvaccinated school-age children in Texas and one unvaccinated adult in New Mexico. Before those deaths the last US measles fatality was in 2015, in a woman with other medical conditions.

Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke this week with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Shapiro said he told Kennedy that vaccine claims coming out of the federal health department were having consequences on the ground. Kennedy’s office has not issued a separate statement on the Pennsylvania deaths.

Measles puts about one in five patients in hospital. Complications include pneumonia and brain swelling. The virus is among the most contagious in circulation. A single case in a low-coverage county can seed dozens of infections before the first hospital chart is written.

Bogen’s department is not naming the dead. The infant finding, if confirmed by the coroner, would make the 2026 national death list start with a child too young for the standard first dose. That is the detail local clinics will use when they decide whether to offer an early dose at 6 to 11 months during the outbreak, a step CDC already allows for travel and local transmission, with two further doses still required after the first birthday.