Pennsylvania health officials confirmed Tuesday that a fourth person has died in connection with the state’s growing measles outbreak, this time an 18-year-old resident of Mifflin County who succumbed to a rare and severe neurological condition causing dangerous inflammation of the brain.
The Mifflin County coroner confirmed the teenager’s death was directly caused by complications stemming from measles. The victim was unvaccinated, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
A second death announced Tuesday involved a 40-year-old woman from Jefferson County who had pre-existing conditions including asthma and severe lung disease. She died over the weekend and was also unvaccinated.
All four measles-linked deaths in Pennsylvania have occurred within the past month, marking the first such fatalities the state has seen in 35 years. The two earlier deaths involved infants in Lancaster County, including a newborn and a 6-week-old baby, neither of whom had been old enough to receive the measles vaccine.
Pennsylvania health officials have now recorded nearly 700 measles cases this year, with state authorities pointing to declining vaccination rates as a key driver of the outbreak. Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed more than 3,200 cases as of September 10.
To put the scale of Pennsylvania’s crisis in perspective, the entire United States recorded only three measles deaths throughout all of last year.
The CDC has not yet formally confirmed any of the Pennsylvania deaths in its official records, a notable departure from how the agency has historically handled state-reported fatalities. CDC Director Erica Schwartz noted Monday that Pennsylvania had not formally requested federal assistance, though state health officials said they maintain an active working relationship with CDC staff and submit death records daily.
The outbreak has also sparked political controversy. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro publicly accused Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of spreading misinformation about vaccines. Kennedy responded by suggesting the infant deaths may have been fabricated and that Shapiro was exploiting the situation for political gain.
Medical professionals have pushed back against claims from anti-vaccine advocates who argue that a secondary condition disqualifies measles as a cause of death. Doctors maintain that measles remains the underlying cause in such cases because patients would not have developed the fatal complications without the initial infection.
The MMR vaccine provides 97 percent protection against measles when two doses are administered. The first dose is typically given around age one and the second around age five.