A 39-year-old woman in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, died after a recent measles diagnosis in what would be the sixth measles-associated death of Pennsylvania’s 2026 outbreak, according to the county coroner’s office, which said the case met the state’s definition.1
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office investigated the death on October 10 and reported that the woman had several underlying conditions, including a past measles diagnosis for which she received treatment. The office withheld further details to protect the family’s privacy and did not disclose her vaccination status. A spokesperson for the coroner’s office told NBC News that the “primary cause of death was a probable acute cardiac event due to possible complications of the measles.”2
State Reviews Case Under Its Measles Death Definition
The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) said it was conducting a thorough review of the reported death. The department uses its own definition of a measles-associated death, modeled on national definitions for influenza- and respiratory syncytial virus–associated deaths, while the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) develops formal guidance. Under that definition, a confirmed measles-associated death occurs within 30 days of symptom onset in a person with clinical evidence of measles and a positive laboratory test and is not due to an unrelated cause. The DOH does not count a death if the person fully recovered from measles beforehand or if the death occurred more than 30 days after rash onset.3 The coroner’s release did not state when the woman was diagnosed or whether she had recovered before she died.1
Before the Franklin County report, the DOH had confirmed 5 measles-associated deaths this year: 2 infants and another resident in Lancaster County, an 18-year-old in Mifflin County, and a 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County.4
Outbreak Passes 1100 Cases as Vaccinations Climb
Pennsylvania had confirmed 1,136 measles cases and 219 hospitalizations as of DOH’s October 9 data update.2 As of the DOH’s October 7 release, the outbreak, which began in late April, had reached 41 counties, and 4 cases, less than 1% of the total, had occurred in vaccinated individuals.5 Death from measles occurs in 1 to 3 of every 1,000 cases, according to the department.