CDC Confirms First 2026 Measles Death Amid Pennsylvania Dispute

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Wednesday that one person died of measles in the United States in 2026, its first official acknowledgment of a fatality this year, even as Pennsylvania health officials say the disease has killed four people in the state since late August.¹²⁴⁵

A contested count

The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics verified that the death posted to the agency's website had measles listed as the underlying cause, according to the CDC and HHS. Until now, the agency had not counted the four measles-linked deaths cited by Pennsylvania's Health Department.¹⁴³

HHS spokesperson Grace Davis Jamison said, "NCHS followed its usual procedure to confirm that the death had taken place and that measles was recorded as the primary cause." That determination now appears on the agency's website," she said, adding that the CDC is collaborating with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to establish a uniform definition for measles-related deaths.³

According to the state health department, Pennsylvania classifies a death as linked to measles when the person tested positive for the virus and died within a month of symptom onset. A department spokesperson said officials did not know which of the four deaths the CDC was referring to in its updated tracker.¹

Political clash

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro criticized HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for omitting the state's reported deaths from the CDC tracker, saying, "Kennedy doesn't believe that measles is an issue," and describing the administration's position as "not being grounded in reality."³

Kennedy maintained that measles was responsible for just one of the four deaths Pennsylvania reported, and charged that Shapiro had turned the state's measles fatalities into a political issue. Separately, Kennedy conceded that an infant in Pennsylvania had died of measles once a coroner in Lancaster County established the cause.⁴⁵³

The state initially disclosed two infant measles deaths in late August, then updated its tally with two more fatalities in mid-September.³

Scale of the outbreak

By Wednesday, the CDC's tally for 2026 stood at 3,471 confirmed measles cases spanning 45 states plus Washington, D.C., alongside over 300 hospital admissions nationwide. The Hill reported the same national case figure as of September 17, including 745 cases in Pennsylvania, and described the 2026 infection total as a 35-year high.¹³

Pennsylvania's own count had reached 835 cases by Wednesday, including 111 in the previous seven days, with 164 hospitalizations in the state. Two-thirds of Pennsylvania's cases are in adults, and nearly all people diagnosed with measles nationwide are unvaccinated, according to the CDC.¹⁵

According to the CDC, receiving both recommended shots of the MMR vaccine—usually administered at age one and again at age five—provides 97% protection from measles. The prior year saw three measles fatalities nationwide—an adult in New Mexico plus two young girls in Texas—all of which the CDC accepted without dispute after states reported them.¹

Calls for clearer standards

Kawsar Talaat, who holds an associate professorship at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, argued that consistent tracking requires all parties to agree on what counts as a measles death. "A standardized definition of measles-related death is very important, so that the cases can be counted objectively," she said, adding, "If different agencies count deaths differently, it is very confusing and leads to a lack of transparency and trust."⁴