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Third Pennsylvania measles death confirmed
September 14, 2026
Jefferson County's coroner says a woman there died of measles complications, the third death tied to measles during Pennsylvania's outbreak.
Measles ranks among the most contagious illnesses known, and US health authorities point to two doses of the MMR vaccine as the strongest available protection against infection.
Key facts
- Pennsylvania's outbreak is centered on that county, and the statewide count stood at 676 cases as of Friday, with 108 of those logged over the preceding week.
- The coroner for Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, confirmed Sunday that a woman of 40 who lived there had died from complications of measles.
- The statewide tally as of the previous week was just under 700 measles cases, spread over 37 counties.
- Jason Stiver, chief deputy coroner and public relations officer for Jefferson County, told WTAE: “Many people associate measles with a childhood illness, but it can lead to severe complications in individuals of any age.”
The Guardian reports the death of a woman in her forties from Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, and places it as the third death tied to measles since the outbreak began. CNN reports the same confirmation by the county coroner, Furlong, and adds the medical picture: she caught the virus from a relative who had it, and she already lived with COPD and asthma, needing oxygen around the clock. The Washington Post attributes the death to a probable case of measles, citing the coroner. Al Jazeera puts the count at three measles deaths nationally. On the county, the tally, and who confirmed the death, the four outlets corroborate each other.
On the size of the outbreak, CNN gives a figure of 676 cases as of Friday, with 108 of those logged in the week before, and calls the county at the center of the spread. The Guardian counts close to 700 cases in 37 counties as of last week, with Lancaster and Mifflin counties carrying most of them among large farming communities. Different cut-off dates explain the two totals, so the outlets agree on a fast-climbing caseload rather than splitting on arithmetic.
Both CNN and The Guardian carry the friction between the state and Washington. CNN reports Erica Schwartz, the recently confirmed head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying her agency learned of the death from nobody in Pennsylvania, and that the state has turned aside standing offers of an Epi Aid deployment. The Guardian carries Kennedy's account of what the Lancaster County coroner has said publicly about which of the two infant deaths measles caused, against the state's own tally counting both as measles-associated. The outlets corroborate the woman's death, where she lived, and the coroner's confirmation. What the record leaves split is the cause assigned to the earlier infant deaths, one reading resting on a pathologist's finding of a lacerated spleen, the other on the state's classification.
A statement from Schwartz, sent to CNN by email, said: “Despite repeated offers of assistance, Pennsylvania has not requested a CDC Epi-Aid, which would deploy epidemiologists and provide on-the-ground measles outbreak support.”
Still developing
The state health department's review of the case continues as the last development at the time of draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- CNN — Adult woman dies of measles complications in growing Pennsylvania outbreak
- The Guardian — Pennsylvania reports apparent third measles-related death amid outbreak
- Al Jazeera — A third person has died of measles in the US, health officials say
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