A third person has died of measles in the US, health officials say

Pennsylvania reports that a 40-year-old woman has died from measles, which was declared eliminated in the US in 2000.

A nurse prepares a combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine for a patient at Tiger Pediatrics in Easley, South Carolina, March 17, 2026 [Mary Conlon/AP]

A 40-year-old woman in the state of Pennsylvania has died of measles, becoming the third person to die from a rare outbreak of the preventable disease in the United States.

“This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and an unfortunate reminder that measles can be a serious and potentially life-threatening disease,” Greg Furlong, the medical examiner for Jefferson County, about 230km (143 miles) northwest of Philadelphia, said in a statement posted online on Sunday.

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Health officials did not identify the woman, but said she died of complications associated with measles on Saturday.

County officials warned residents that measles is a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease, and urged them to “take appropriate steps to protect themselves and their families”.

The Washington Post, citing Furlong, reported that the woman was unvaccinated.

The state of Pennsylvania has also been the site of the other two measles-related deaths to occur this year in the US, reported by authorities to have happened in August. Both were in Lancaster County, a largely rural, agriculture-dependent area home to a large Amish population, a conservative Christian population which has lower vaccination rates than other groups in the US. Those two deaths also involved unvaccinated people, according to state health authorities.

There have been 3,294 cases of measles in the US so far in 2026, according to the Centers for Disease Control, across more than 45 states.

In 2025, there were 2,289 cases in the country and three deaths, according to the agency.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the state has recorded 676 total cases of measles so far this year, with 108 new cases being reported in the last week. Some 124 of these cases involved people having to be hospitalised. Nearly a third were children. Less than 1 percent of all cases in the state were people who were fully vaccinated. Lancaster County, according to the state agency, has accounted for 295 of all cases in Pennsylvania in 2026.

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but has made a comeback in recent years, which some experts have linked to a rise in vaccine scepticism.

In recent months, President Donald Trump’s administration has openly clashed with local health authorities, including in Pennsylvania, disputing the state’s characterisation of the deaths earlier this year as being measles-related, and removing them from its national accounting of how the measles outbreak is progressing.

In August, after the state announced the first two measles deaths, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr, a well-known vaccine sceptic, accused Pennsylvania’s Democrat-led government of “weaponization of infectious disease fears for political gain” in a post on X, and raised the possibility the announcement “may even have been altogether fabricated”.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, in turn, has accused Kennedy of spreading conspiracy theories and pointed out that he spoke at an event in Lancaster County several years ago, “downplaying the severity of measles and saying that the cure was ‘chicken soup and vitamin A'”.

宾夕法尼亚州报告称，一名 40 岁妇女死于麻疹，而麻疹已于 2000 年在美国被宣布消除。

2026年3月17日，在南卡罗来纳州伊斯利市的Tiger Pediatrics儿科诊所，一名护士正在为一名患者准备麻疹、腮腺炎和风疹联合疫苗。[Mary Conlon/AP]

宾夕法尼亚州一名 40 岁女子死于麻疹，成为美国第三位死于这种罕见且可预防疾病爆发的人。

“这对这个家庭来说是令人心碎的损失，也不幸地提醒人们，麻疹可能是一种严重的、甚至危及生命的疾病，”杰斐逊县（位于费城西北约 230 公里/143 英里处）的法医格雷格·弗隆在周日发布的一份在线声明中说。

罗伯特·肯尼迪二世驱逐疾控中心疫苗专家组全部17名成员（共3条记录，此为第1条）

美国卫生部门对宾夕法尼亚州麻疹相关死亡人数提出异议（名单共3份）。

列表 3/3：美国宾夕法尼亚州两名未接种疫苗者死于麻疹

卫生官员没有透露这名女子的身份，但表示她于周六死于麻疹并发症。

县政府官员警告居民，麻疹是一种传染性极强且可能致命的疾病，并敦促他们“采取适当措施保护自己和家人”。

《华盛顿邮报》援引弗隆的话报道称，这名女子没有接种疫苗。

今年美国另外两例麻疹相关死亡病例也发生在宾夕法尼亚州，据官方报告，这两起病例均发生在8月份。两起病例均发生在兰开斯特县，该县是一个以农业为主的乡村地区，居住着大量阿米什人。阿米什人信奉基督教，是一个保守的群体，他们的疫苗接种率低于美国其他群体。据州卫生部门称，这两例死亡病例的死者均未接种疫苗。

据美国疾病控制中心统计，截至2026年，美国已有3294例麻疹病例，遍及45个以上的州。

据该机构统计，2025年该国共有2289例病例，3例死亡。

根据宾夕法尼亚州卫生部的数据，该州今年迄今已记录676例麻疹病例，其中上周新增108例。这些病例中约有124例需要住院治疗。近三分之一的患者为儿童。全州所有病例中，接种过疫苗的人群占比不到1%。据该州卫生部门统计，兰开斯特县占宾夕法尼亚州2026年所有麻疹病例的295例。

麻疹于 2000 年在美国被宣布消除，但近年来又卷土重来，一些专家认为这与人们对疫苗的怀疑态度日益加深有关。

近几个月来，唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府公开与包括宾夕法尼亚州在内的地方卫生部门发生冲突，质疑该州今年早些时候将死亡病例定性为与麻疹相关的，并将其从全国麻疹疫情进展统计中删除。

8 月，在宾夕法尼亚州宣布出现首例麻疹死亡病例后，美国卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪（一位著名的疫苗怀疑论者）在 X 网站上发帖指责宾夕法尼亚州民主党领导的政府“利用传染病恐惧来获取政治利益”，并提出该声明“甚至可能是完全捏造的”。

宾夕法尼亚州州长乔什·夏皮罗则指责肯尼迪散布阴谋论，并指出他几年前在兰开斯特县的一次活动上发表讲话，“淡化了麻疹的严重性，并说治疗方法是‘鸡汤和维生素 A’”。