First Deaths in Pennsylvania measles outbreak

Two unvaccinated Pennsylvania residents have died from measles, marking the first deaths tied to the disease in the state in 35 years.

Quick Take

The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed two measles-associated deaths on August 25, 2026.
Both victims lived in Lancaster County and were unvaccinated.
These are the first measles deaths reported anywhere in the United States this year.
Pennsylvania’s outbreak has grown to well over 100 confirmed cases statewide.

Health Officials Confirm the State’s First Measles Deaths in Decades

The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced the two deaths in a statement Tuesday. Officials said both people who died had not received the measles vaccine. The department called these the first measles-related deaths in the commonwealth in 35 years, a grim milestone for a disease long considered eliminated from the country.

Reuters and other outlets confirmed the deaths came from Lancaster County, a densely populated area in southeastern Pennsylvania. Health officials have not released further personal details about the victims. The announcement made national headlines because it also marked the first measles deaths recorded in the United States during 2026, even as case counts climbed across multiple states.

An Outbreak That Has Been Building for Months

Pennsylvania’s outbreak began in the Lebanon and Lancaster county area earlier this year and has since spread. Tracking site data showed dozens of cases linked to that initial cluster, with the state’s total climbing past 70 infections by summer before continuing to rise. Public health researchers tracking the outbreak reported the state’s case count had reached 139 by late August, with 29 new cases confirmed in just one week.

Governor Josh Shapiro addressed the deaths directly at a press briefing, calling the outbreak a serious and growing problem for the state and the country. He emphasized that measles is a preventable illness, a point state health officials have repeated throughout the outbreak response. The state’s own health department describes measles plainly as a disease that can cause serious illness and death, but one that vaccination reliably stops.

Why Two Deaths Carry So Much Weight

Measles deaths are rare in modern America, which is exactly why these two matter so much. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded only three measles deaths nationwide in all of 2025, and zero deaths anywhere in the country before Pennsylvania’s announcement this year. Before a vaccine existed, the disease killed far more people every year.

🗞 Pennsylvania reported its first two measles deaths of 2026 in Lancaster County, as the U.S. faces its largest outbreak in decades with 2,777 cases nationwide.

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Government health records show that in the decade before the measles vaccine was licensed in 1963, the country averaged about 495 deaths from the disease every year, alongside roughly 48,000 hospitalizations annually. That history is the backdrop against which today’s outbreak plays out. Vaccination drove those numbers down for generations, and gaps in vaccine coverage are now allowing the virus to find unprotected communities again.

Federal surveillance data from 2001 through 2022 recorded just three measles deaths nationwide across those two decades, and most hospitalized patients during that stretch were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. That long stretch of near-zero fatalities makes Pennsylvania’s two deaths a sharp reminder of what happens when vaccination rates slip in a community. Health officials continue urging residents to check their immunization status as the outbreak spreads.