GoKawiil
Tech News
Wisconsin health officials reported Thursday that an infant died from measles, marking the state's first measles fatality in 35 years. The death occurred amid an outbreak that has sickened more than 430 people across 13 counties in 2025, and follows two other measles deaths reported this week in New York and Pennsylvania.
New York health officials announced late Monday that a child in the state has died from measles, the first such death there in more than three decades. It is the seventh measles-linked death nationwide this year, following six deaths in Pennsylvania, which has recorded over 1,430 cases in its own outbreak. New York has logged 170 measles cases across more than a dozen counties this year.
Measles infections quietly increased in multiple countries even as COVID-19 remained the primary focus of public health systems and media coverage. The resurgence reflects disruptions to routine vaccination programs during the pandemic period.
Washington state health officials published a study in NEJM Evidence showing that a measles outbreak in South Carolina, which began in October 2025 and ended in April 2026 with 997 cases, spread to Washington through five separate importation events within a two-week span in January. Those introductions led to 26 cases among Washington residents before health authorities contained the spread, with whole genome sequencing confirming the virus arrived independently multiple times rather than spreading from a single source.
Pennsylvania's health department issued an alert Monday after seeing rising numbers of measles infections among pregnant women, including cases of congenital measles not documented in the US for decades. As of October 19, the state had logged 1,286 measles cases across 42 counties this year, with 247 hospitalizations and six reported deaths. Separate reporting has put measles-in-pregnancy cases at 53, including one newborn death linked to congenital infection.
Measles cases in the United States have risen past 4,200 in 2026, prompting the Pan American Health Organization to examine whether the country has again become endemic for the disease. The U.S. had declared measles eliminated in 2000, and PAHO is expected to issue a determination on that status at a meeting next month.
Franklin County Coroner Jordan Conner confirmed that a 39-year-old unvaccinated woman with underlying health conditions died October 10 after testing positive for measles, becoming the sixth fatality in Pennsylvania's ongoing outbreak. The coroner's office listed the cause as a probable acute cardiac event linked to possible measles complications. State health officials reported 1,136 cases since January, with 218 hospitalizations across 41 counties.
Pennsylvania has experienced a surge in measles cases, totaling 1,078 so far in 2026, making it the largest outbreak in the US since 1991. The majority of cases have emerged since April, with 207 hospitalizations and five deaths, all among unvaccinated individuals. The outbreak continues to grow, with 34 new cases reported since Monday, and experts are now questioning whether the US has lost its measles elimination status.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency on Monday in response to a measles outbreak, as national case counts reached their highest level in 35 years. Hochul said no one should become seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease.
UPMC's community hospital in Lititz, Pennsylvania has evaluated about 50 measles patients since April, with roughly 20 requiring hospitalization, according to infectious disease specialist John Goldman. Statewide, Pennsylvania has logged 943 cases, 176 hospitalizations and five deaths as of September 30, part of a national measles resurgence topping 3,600 cases this year, the highest since 1991.
Pennsylvania's health department confirmed a fifth death from measles, an unvaccinated Lancaster County resident, as the state's outbreak grew to 943 cases across 39 counties. At least 176 people have been hospitalized, with 119 new cases reported in the past week alone. All five deaths this year—two infants, an 18-year-old, a 40-year-old woman, and this latest case—were unvaccinated, and no measles deaths had occurred in the state in the previous 35 years.
Measles case counts in the United States have surpassed 3,500 so far this year, already exceeding the full-year total recorded in 2025. Health officials note that roughly 10% of this year's cases were reported within just the past two weeks, indicating the outbreak's pace is accelerating rather than slowing.