{"id":305484,"date":"2026-10-13T04:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/305484\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T04:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:04:26","slug":"a-sixth-measles-related-death-is-reported-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/305484\/","title":{"rendered":"A sixth measles-related death is reported in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sixth measles-related death was reported Monday in Pennsylvania, involving a 39-year-old woman in Franklin County, amid the state\u2019s largest outbreak in three decades.<\/a> <\/p>\n

In a statement, the county coroner\u2019s office<\/a> office said the woman had underlying medical conditions, though it did not provide specifics. A spokesperson for the Franklin County coroner\u2019s office said the \u201cprimary cause of death was a probable acute cardiac event due to possible complications of the measles.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cardiac complications from measles can happen, but they are uncommon.<\/p>\n

The woman had not been vaccinated, the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Health Department considers a death to be \u201cmeasles-associated\u201d if it occurred within 30 days of symptom onset and there is clinical evidence of a measles infection and a positive laboratory test. It also takes into account the person\u2019s medical records and whether they were exposed to measles before they died.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, Pennsylvania had confirmed 1,136 measles cases<\/a>, with 219 hospitalizations. Two-thirds of those cases were diagnosed in adults. <\/p>\n

The Health Department said in an email Monday that it was aware of the Franklin County coroner\u2019s announcement and \u201cis conducting a thorough review of the reported death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The death announced Monday is the sixth in less than two months in the state, suggesting the outbreak is far greater than reported. Historically, measles infections cause 1 to 2 deaths per 1,000 cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re probably closer to 6,000 cases,\u201d said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. \u201cThey are vastly underestimating the number of cases. It\u2019s much worse.\u201d <\/p>\n

The first two deaths announced in the state in late August were in infants, both in Lancaster County, which has accounted for the vast majority of cases in the state\u2019s outbreak. <\/p>\n

One father in Lancaster County told NBC News<\/a> that his wife was sick with measles in August and went into labor a month early. Their baby died shortly after birth. The other was a 6-week-old who had a rare genetic condition. <\/p>\n

Last month, a 40-year-old woman<\/a> with asthma and severe lung disease died in Jefferson County, as well as an 18-year-old Mifflin County<\/a> resident who died \u201cdue to complications of measles,\u201d specifically a rare and severe neurological condition that causes inflammation in the brain. <\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Inquirer <\/a>reported in early October that the fifth death occurred in a 20-year-old woman with a compromised immune system because of leukemia.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of people diagnosed with measles are unvaccinated. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, less than 1% of cases there occurred in people who were fully vaccinated. <\/p>\n

The first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is typically given at around 1 year of age and then around age 5. Two doses offer 97% protection against measles, usually for life.<\/p>\n

During outbreaks, babies as young as 6 months old are eligible for a dose ahead of those two recommended shots. <\/p>\n

Nationally, there have been 4,080 measles cases<\/a> this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It\u2019s the most cases since 1991. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sixth measles-related death was reported Monday in Pennsylvania, involving a 39-year-old woman in Franklin County, amid the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-305484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305484","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=305484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}