Six measles deaths in US this year amid worst outbreak in 35 years, CDC says

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported six measles-related deaths in the country this year, according to figures published on its website on Thursday.

The new total is twice the number of deaths recorded in 2025, highlighting the spread of the highly infectious virus, which was officially declared eliminated in the US in 2000.

The country is facing its largest measles outbreak since 1991. More than 5,400 cases have been reported nationwide, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University International Vaccine Access Center tracker.

Pennsylvania has been the state most severely affected, with officials confirming six measles-associated deaths there this year. A child also died in New York on election day, followed days later by the death of an infant in Wisconsin. Active outbreaks have been reported in nearly every US state.

The Wisconsin department of health services confirmed the infant's death, while New York recorded its first known measles-related fatality in more than three decades.

The CDC, however, did not identify which states accounted for the six deaths in its official count.

The difference in the reported figures followed a change in counting method. The CDC, operating under health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, is now using data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a way of tracking mortality trends over time, according to a note published on the agency's website on 4 September.

Kennedy previously argued without evidence that two of the deaths in Pennsylvania may not have been from measles, and asked CDC director Erica Schwartz not to count them in the official tally, according to reporting by Reuters. The day after the Reuters report was published, the CDC changed its data source on measles deaths.

Measles is preventable through the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which offers approximately 97 percent protection after two doses.

The US could lose its measles elimination status this week. Losing that designation would place it alongside Canada and several countries in Europe and Asia where measles had previously been eliminated before making a comeback.