Pennsylvania measles outbreak reaches 890 cases with four deaths

Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak has reached 890 confirmed cases across 39 counties, with at least 173 people hospitalized and four measles-associated deaths, according to a Friday update from the state Department of Health reported by ABC News. The count rose by 55 cases in two days.

The outbreak began in late April in the Lebanon County area and has since spread across much of the state. In its September 23 update, the department reported 835 cases, 164 hospitalizations and four deaths. Only four cases, fewer than 1 percent, were among vaccinated people, the department said.

Lancaster County has the most cases at 359, followed by Mifflin County in central Pennsylvania at 102, ABC News reported, citing state health department data. The largest share of cases is in people aged 25 to 49, followed by those aged 18 to 24.

Pennsylvania’s four deaths are the most in a single year nationally since 1992, when four measles deaths were recorded, CNN reported. Last year the United States recorded three, two in Texas and one in New Mexico. The most recent Pennsylvania death was an unvaccinated 18-year-old from Mifflin County who died from acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare neurological condition that can follow an infection, according to county coroner Andrea Alcalde. Two of the deaths were in Lancaster County and involved infants. The county coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, said his office disputed whether one of them was caused by measles; the other, a six-week-old with a serious genetic condition, was caused by measles, he said.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen said in a statement that the state “faces the worst measles outbreak in more than three decades.” She said the state remains committed to ensuring people have the facts about measles and access to the MMR vaccine, “which kept measles outbreaks at bay for decades.” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, wrote that “this disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000” and is surging “due to lower vaccination rates.”

Federal and state officials have disagreed over how the deaths are counted. CNN reported on September 15 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not counted any measles deaths in 2026, and that the agency’s new director, Dr. Erica Schwartz, decided to exclude the first two Pennsylvania deaths from its weekly update, saying there was not enough information to determine whether measles caused or contributed to them. Shapiro said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally intervened to direct the CDC not to report the deaths. Kennedy said that is false, and that the agency “will report measles-caused deaths when the National Center for Health Statistics reports measles as the underlying cause based on death record information submitted by the states.” Kennedy also accused Shapiro of politicizing the outbreak.

The state has expanded vaccination efforts. Health officials have administered nearly 5,200 MMR vaccinations at 156 pop-up clinics in affected communities since the outbreak began, and state health center staff have given more than 7,700 doses in 2026, the department said. Health care providers statewide gave more than 49,000 MMR doses in August and more than 38,000 in the first three weeks of September, compared with a typical month of about 25,000.

The department says two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97 percent effective at preventing measles for life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a first dose at 12 to 15 months and a second between ages 4 and 6. About one in five unvaccinated people who contract measles is hospitalized, CNN reported, and the virus kills one to three of every 1,000 children who are infected. The department’s toll-free hotline is 877-724-3258.

Nationally, measles cases have surpassed 3,600 in 2026, with cases confirmed in 45 states and Washington, D.C., ABC News reported.