Pennsylvania officials report state’s 3rd death involving measles

A Pennsylvania woman has died from complications associated with measles, the third death in the state this year involving the virus.

The 40-year-old woman died Saturday, Jefferson County Coroner Greg Furlong said in a Facebook post in which he called the death “measles-related.”

The post did not identify the woman other than as a resident of Jefferson County, a rural area about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh.

“This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and an unfortunate reminder that measles can be a serious and potentially life-threatening disease,” Furlong said in the post.

The post did not say whether the woman was vaccinated against measles. No more information about the case would be released, it stated.

Pennsylvania’s two previous measles-related deaths involved infants. Both occurred in August and a coroner reported that the virus itself caused one of the deaths.

One infant, a boy, died shortly after birth of a ruptured spleen. The boy had measles that did not contribute to the rupture, according to Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni.

Rather, measles was listed as a “significant condition” at the time of death.

The other infant, a 6-week-old girl with a genetic defect that left her highly vulnerable to infection, died due to measles, Diamantoni told The Associated Press.

The girl was born with a condition called Amish lethal microcephaly that causes an unusually small head and underdeveloped brain. Children with the condition typically live 6 months or less.

The first dose of measles vaccine is typically given to infants around 1 year old, meaning neither infant was old enough to be vaccinated.

As of Friday, Pennsylvania had 676 measles cases in 37 of the state’s 67 counties. Of those cases, 124 involved hospitalizations and four people who were vaccinated against measles, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The three measles-related deaths reported by state and local officials as of Sunday did not square with figures of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed no such deaths this year.

“The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) does not currently have any death records from 2026 that indicate measles is the underlying cause,” read the CDC website Sunday.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, and Republican President Donald Trump’s administration have clashed over details of the two previous deaths in the state.