CDC updates measles count, now includes 2 deaths

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its national measles tally late Monday to include an additional death in 2026, raising the total to two.

The agency’s numbers are still shy of Pennsylvania’s official report of four measles-associated deaths in an outbreak that surpassed 900 cases this week.

The CDC’s database does not specify where or when these deaths occurred, so it’s not clear if the tally includes Pennsylvania’s reported cases. However, no other state has recorded a measles death this year.

The CDC added the first death to its official list last week.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson Emily Hilliard told The Hill that the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) received another report from a state of a measles-related death, prompting the CDC to update its count to two.

“Through its standard process, NCHS verified that the death occurred and that measles was listed as the underlying cause of death. This is now reflected on the CDC website,” Hilliard said.

The update comes amid an ongoing bitter political dispute between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) — a potential 2028 presidential candidate — and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy has openly questioned whether the deaths in Pennsylvania were directly caused by measles and accused Shapiro of politicizing the outbreak. The CDC has not included all of Pennsylvania’s reported deaths in its weekly national measles death tally, a radical departure from the typical agency practice of accepting a state’s own reporting.

Pennsylvania first reported two infant deaths tied to the illness in late August and added two more in mid-September.