The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sept. 18 said it’s working on developing parameters for counting deaths caused by measles, while continuing to decline to add any recently reported deaths in Pennsylvania to its measles death count.
The CDC said in an update on measles cases and deaths in the United States on Friday that it has not received any death records from this year “that indicate measles is the underlying cause” of death.
The public health agency also said it is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists “to develop a standardized case definition for deaths due to measles.” Such a definition will promote consistent reporting of measles deaths across states and counties, according to the CDC.
The CDC and the council did not return requests for comment by time of publication.
The update listed 3,471 confirmed measles cases in the country in 2026, along with 301 hospitalizations and zero deaths.
Federal officials and authorities in Pennsylvania have been arguing over deaths in the state that authorities there say are related to or were caused by measles.
There have been four measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in 2026, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said in its latest update on Sept. 16. That includes an infant death a coroner said was caused by measles, and an adult death that another coroner said was caused by measles complications, as well as the death of a baby that a coroner said was not related to measles, although the child had tested positive.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on X this week that he learned that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “personally intervened in an otherwise administrative process to direct the CDC to not report these Pennsylvania deaths.” Kennedy responded that the claim was false.
“CDC is applying a consistent national standard rather than allowing politicians to decide which deaths appear in federal mortality statistics,” Kennedy wrote. “CDC will report measles-caused deaths when the National Center for Health Statistics reports measles as the underlying cause based on death record information submitted by the states.”
Dr. Erica Schwartz, the CDC’s new director, told Atlanta News First this week that the CDC has not had a standardized case definition for measles, comparing the situation to deaths reported during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If someone got hit by a bus, and they happened to have COVID, often that was called a COVID-related death,” Schwartz said. “Definitions matter. In terms of my transparency as a CDC director, I want to be very accurate with the American people.”
The CDC reported three measles deaths in 2025, including two children in Texas and one in New Mexico. Officials in those states said measles caused the deaths. Kennedy has said the individuals had underlying conditions.
“We care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines,” Kennedy told a conference in Washington this week. “We should care about the children, shouldn’t we? I’d ask you care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries.”