Pennsylvania Measles Outbreak Tops 700 Cases After Fourth Death as State Presses CDC on Toll

Pennsylvania's Department of Health reported 731 measles cases on Sept. 16, 2026, up 38 from two days earlier, with 141 patients hospitalized, Reuters reported. The update came a day after the state reported four measles-related deaths among unvaccinated residents, including two infants and a 40-year-old woman, in the nation's worst measles resurgence in decades. Lancaster County remains the outbreak's epicenter. Nationally, the CDC had recorded 3,294 confirmed measles cases through Sept. 10, 2026.

The outbreak has become the center of a dispute between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has said only one of the state's reported deaths was directly linked to measles infection and has directed the CDC to keep Pennsylvania's fatalities out of the national tally. The disagreement over how officials count vaccine-preventable deaths comes amid the country's largest measles caseload since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.

The CDC's website says it is reevaluating how it classifies measles deaths, and the 2026 Pennsylvania fatalities are not currently included in its national count.