![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 25 Aug 202625 Aug 2026<\/p>\n
The US state of Pennsylvania has reported that two residents died from measles<\/a>, marking the first fatal cases this year of the disease that had previously been largely eradicated in the United States.<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania Department of Health said on Tuesday that both of the deceased were unvaccinated residents of Lancaster County, but did not share additional details due to privacy concerns.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n \u201cBecause measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades, people are not familiar with this disease and don\u2019t fully understand the potential severity of the illness,\u201d said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Debra Bogen.<\/p>\n The US is facing the most severe measles outbreak in years as vaccination rates drop below levels that medical experts say are necessary to confer herd immunity. That decrease has been partly driven by an anti-vaccination movement that includes prominent members of the Trump administration<\/a>, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n At least 2,777 confirmed cases of measles<\/a> have been recorded in the US thus far this year. Pennsylvania has been among the hardest hit by the outbreak, recording 393 measles cases across 28 different counties.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month calling for the number of recommended vaccines for children to be reduced, continuing a push to roll back decades of scientific consensus on the safety and efficacy of vaccinations<\/a>.<\/p>\n