Two people are dead after contracting measles, Pennsylvania officials said on Aug. 25.
The deaths of the individuals are “related to measles,” the Pennsylvania Department of Health said in a statement.
The department said that neither person had received a measles vaccine, and that both resided in Lancaster County.
The department declined to provide any additional details, citing a desire to avoid releasing information that could lead to the identification of the people and their families.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The number of measles cases in the country recently eclipsed the total from 2025 and is the highest number since 1991.
Pennsylvania has confirmed 393 cases so far this year.
No deaths from measles had been recorded before Tuesday’s announcement.
Three people died from measles in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others have said that medical records for those patients showed that they died from unrelated problems or health issues that were made worse by measles.
Kennedy and health officials have encouraged people to get the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, but Kennedy has stressed that people should not be forced to vaccinate and that doctors should be prepared to treat measles cases.
Asked about the measles situation earlier in the month during an unrelated briefing, Kennedy told reporters that “we’ve done better than any country in the world in controlling it.”
He also said that the outbreak has been almost entirely confined to religious communities that do not want to receive vaccines.
This is a developing story that will be updated.