{"id":272383,"date":"2026-08-26T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T06:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/272383\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T06:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T06:00:18","slug":"first-two-u-s-measles-deaths-this-year-reported-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/272383\/","title":{"rendered":"First two U.S. measles deaths this year reported in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Two unvaccinated Pennsylvania residents have died from\u00a0measles<\/a>, the first U.S. deaths this year related to the contagious virus.<\/p>\n

State health officials announced the deaths Tuesday. They did not reveal any details about the people who died, other than that they lived in Lancaster County, west of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThere are already more U.S. measles cases this year than in all of 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMy deepest sympathies are with the loved ones who are facing this unimaginable loss,\u201d said state Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen. \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<\/p>\n

The U.S. has now seen five measles deaths in the last two years \u2014 more than the combined total of reported deaths over the previous three decades \u2014 and is enduring its worst year for measles since 1991.<\/p>\n

With 2,777 cases as of Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year already\u00a0has surpassed<\/a>\u00a02025\u2019s measles count.<\/p>\n

In November, international health officials will meet to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have\u00a0lost their measles-free status<\/a>. The U.S. eliminated local measles spread in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, which have fallen in recent years to\u00a0below the 95% coverage<\/a>\u00a0needed to prevent outbreaks.<\/p>\n

The measles surge has coincided with moves by President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to scale back childhood vaccinations, based on concerns \u2014 unfounded, according to scientific studies \u2014 about vaccine safety.<\/p>\n

Trump<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month signed an executive order calling for revamped\u00a0childhood vaccine recommendations<\/a>. He also advocated separating the\u00a0measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine<\/a>\u00a0into three different shots, and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible.<\/p>\n

Doctors have raised concerns that Trump and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are stoking confusion and hesitancy.<\/p>\n

In a media briefing Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro said he had spoken with Kennedy, who offered the assistance of federal health staffers. Shapiro declined the offer, saying Pennsylvania\u2019s health department was able to handle the current situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very, very blunt with him,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cI made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that\u2019s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThere\u2019s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal health officials did not immediately comment on the Pennsylvania deaths or on Shapiro\u2019s account of the exchange with Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Vaccination rates are declining nationwide<\/p>\n

Decades of widespread vaccinations turned measles cases and deaths into a rarity, causing people to forget that the very contagious virus can be deadly, said Dr. David Margolius, director of Cleveland\u2019s health department and a leader in a coalition of big city health departments.<\/p>\n

He said that some Cleveland residents have expressed irritation with vaccine-promotion campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s not a big deal. I mean, do people even die from measles? And, you know, why do you care so much? Why do you keep calling me about this?\u2019\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tTrump returns to controversial vaccine policy with order questioning childhood schedule<\/a><\/p>\n

Margolius said the Trump administration has reacted to outbreaks with offers of assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the time to prevent measles is before the outbreaks happen,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the way to do that is clear and consistent and very visible messaging\u201d about the importance of vaccinations.<\/p>\n

The overall U.S. kindergarten\u00a0vaccination rate<\/a>\u00a0inched down last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted last week.<\/p>\n

Lancaster County is known as the heart of Pennsylvania\u2019s Amish community, a religious group that is sometimes reluctant to embrace modern medical interventions such as vaccines. About 88% of kindergartners in the county were up to date on their measles vaccines during the last school year, according to state data.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania has counted nearly 400 measles cases this year, state officials said.<\/p>\n

The state has been promoting measles vaccinations as cases have risen, and about 35,000 people have been vaccinated, up from the usual pace of about 25,000 per month, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jonathan Poet and Mike Stobbe<\/p>\n

Stobbe reported from New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Two unvaccinated Pennsylvania residents have died from\u00a0measles, the first U.S. deaths this year related to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42687,28,30,29,2303,4634,12755],"class_list":["post-272383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-infectious-disease","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-public-health","tag-states","tag-vaccines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}