As Pennsylvania’s worst-in-the-nation measles outbreak continues to grow, the Franklin County Coroner’s Office reported it investigated the death of a 39-year-old woman on Saturday, Oct. 10, who had recently been diagnosed with measles. It marks the sixth measles-associated death reported in Pennsylvania this year.
The woman also had several underlying conditions, according to the coroner’s office.
“This is the first death in Franklin County in many years with a patient with a recent history of a measles diagnosis and meets the definition set forth by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for a measles-associated death,” the office, which is led by Coroner Jordan Conner, said in a news release.
The coroner’s office will not release any additional details in order to protect the privacy of the individual and her family.
A spokesperson for the state Department of Health told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star the department is “conducting a thorough review of the reported death. We will update the public after our investigation is finished.”
On Sept. 30, the state health department announced Pennsylvania’s fifth measles-related death, an unvaccinated resident of Lancaster County who had tested positive for measles.
Officials confirmed two measles-related deaths earlier in September: an 18-year-old Mifflin County resident and a 40-year-old Jefferson County woman. Both individuals were unvaccinated, according to the health department.
In August, two measles-related deaths—the state’s first in 35 years—involved infants in Lancaster County. County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni, an elected Republican, initially cast uncertainty on the cause of death, before confirming that the virus itself caused one of the deaths. After Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled there to announce the deaths, Diamantoni claimed that state health officials never attempted to consult him regarding the cases. But according to a report from The Philadelphia Inquirer, emails show that they did, repeatedly.
State health officials have now confirmed 1,136 measles cases in 41 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, with 157 new cases reported over the last week. Vaccinated individuals have accounted for just four of the state’s measles cases, and 219 cases have involved hospitalizations.
By comparison, Pennsylvania reported 16 measles cases in 2025 and six in 2024.
According to the health department, Lancaster County has the most confirmed measles cases with 415, followed by Mifflin (167) and Chester (87) counties.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly begun to acknowledge Pennsylvania’s measles-related deaths.
For weeks, the CDC—which is overseen by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump administration appointee with a history of raising alarms about established vaccines—did not count any deaths on its measles data dashboard, instead saying it was seeking more information. That changed two weeks ago, when one death was finally counted, and again last week when a second was added to the agency’s tally.
Gov. Shapiro has clashed publicly with Kennedy over vaccine misinformation and his decision to change childhood vaccine schedules—something many doctors, healthcare experts, and government officials disagree with.
The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been administered to protect children and adults for decades. Two doses (one between 12 and 15 months of age, the second between ages 4 and 6) provide about 97% protection against measles, according to the American Medical Association.
While speaking recently at a conference of an anti-vaccine activist group he once chaired, Kennedy told the hundreds in attendance that they had a friend in President Donald Trump’s White House.
Information from USA Today Network via Reuters Connect was used in this story.
