TheChek News Flow

The state has recorded nearly 700 cases of the disease since an outbreak started earlier this year

Pennsylvania health officials announced Tuesday a fourth measles-associated death, the latest fatality in the commonwealth where recently reported deaths from the vaccine-preventable disease have inflamed politics at the local and national level.

The death follows those of two infants in the state’s Lancaster County in mid-August amid a growing measles outbreak. The state health department’s classification of those deaths spurred a highly politicized debate over vaccinations and sparring between the state’s Democratic governor and the nation’s health secretary.

Over the weekend, a coroner in Pennsylvania’s Jefferson County said a 40-year-old woman there died from complications from measles. The Mifflin County Coroner’s Office on Tuesday said an 18-year-old resident died due to a rare neurological complication from measles. The state health department said it worked with local coroners’ offices to determine both individuals tested positive for measles and the deaths didn’t result from an unrelated cause.

“That’s four total measles-associated deaths in our Commonwealth and the first Pennsylvania has seen in 35 years,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a post on social media Tuesday. “These are tragedies, and four families are grieving.”

The governor has accused Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of promoting antivaccine conspiracy theories that have led to outbreaks. “The serious situation continues to be made worse by RFK Jr. playing games with public health and safety,” Shapiro said.

Kennedy on Tuesday said Shapiro has refused federal assistance that might help end the outbreak. “Governor Shapiro has chosen to politicize this outbreak instead of implementing a unified public health response,” Kennedy said.

Pennsylvania has reported nearly 700 cases of measles since the outbreak began earlier this year. There have been 3,294 measles cases reported across the U.S. so far in 2026—the highest level in three decades and about 1,000 cases higher than all those reported in 2025. As a significant measles outbreak hit West Texas last year, officials reported three measles-associated deaths, two of which were among children. Those deaths were the first measles-related fatalities in the U.S. in a decade.

The resurgence of measles comes as the Trump administration shifts the nation’s vaccine policy and backs away from vaccine recommendations. Declining vaccination rates in recent years have fueled recent measles outbreaks across the U.S., making communities more vulnerable to the rampant spread of the highly contagious virus.

The climbing case counts also threaten the nation’s measles-elimination status, a designation the country earned more than two decades ago due to widespread vaccination efforts. Two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine, are 97% effective at preventing the disease.

Measles killed around 400 to 500 people each year in the U.S. before the vaccine was introduced in the 1960s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC hasn’t classified the first two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania as related to the virus. On the agency’s website, an asterisk sits in place of a number, with a note stating the CDC is working to determine a standardized definition for measles deaths.