US measles deaths rise to 10 after new Pennsylvania and Wisconsin reports

Health officials in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin each announced a new measles-associated death on Friday, raising the state-reported U.S. total this year to 10, NBC News reported. Pennsylvania's health department attributed the state's seventh measles death to an unvaccinated Montour County resident. In Wisconsin, officials confirmed the death of a child and withheld further information to protect the family's privacy. New York has reported one measles-associated death.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 5,412 cases across 45 states as of November 12, 230 more than the previous update, and 591 measles-related hospitalizations this year, Reuters reported. A commission of experts from the Pan American Health Organization is expected to determine soon whether the United States can keep its measles-free designation.

State death tallies now exceed the CDC's confirmed count of six measles-associated deaths in 2026, Clinical Observer reported Saturday. The discrepancy emerged after the CDC switched to mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics instead of state counts. An HHS spokesperson said Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Erica Schwartz, the CDC director, "continue to recommend the MMR vaccine as the most effective way to prevent measles infection."

Wisconsin's outbreak since August includes 649 confirmed cases in 20 counties, and the state has sent about 2,000 MMR vaccine doses to affected communities since Aug. 1; officials did not say whether the child had been vaccinated or had other risk factors, Clinical Observer reported Friday.

Roughly 300,000 kindergartners started school this year without a measles vaccine, and the percentage of kindergartners immunized against measles fell from 95% in 2019 to 92% in 2026, ABC News reported. Herd immunity typically requires 95% coverage. Measles is the most contagious disease known: a sick person can infect 90% of unvaccinated people in close contact, and the virus can live on surfaces and in air for two hours after the person leaves. One in five unvaccinated people who get measles are hospitalized. Ear infections develop in one of every 10 children with measles, pneumonia in one of 20, and encephalitis in one of 1,000; nearly one to three of every 1,000 infected children die from respiratory or neurological complications. Children usually receive the first MMR dose at 12 to 15 months and the second at ages 4 to 6; two doses prevent measles in 97% of recipients.