WASHINGTON (The Thursday Times) — Measles-associated deaths in the United States this year have risen to 10 after Pennsylvania and Wisconsin each reported a new death on Friday, as reports said the country had lost the measles elimination status it has held since 2000.
Wisconsin’s health department said a child had died in Grant County, in the state’s south-west, where more than a third of Wisconsin’s 651 cases have been recorded. It was the state’s second measles death, after a baby died last week.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Health said an unvaccinated resident of Montour County, in the east-central part of the state, had tested positive for measles and died. Both states withheld further details, citing the families’ privacy.
Pennsylvania has now recorded seven measles-associated deaths this year, Wisconsin two, and New York one. The New York death, a child, was announced on November 2 and was the state’s first recorded measles death in more than 30 years.
Elimination status
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas, has revoked the US elimination status, according to reports late on Friday. A PAHO commission met this week to review whether the United States and Mexico had lost the status, with a decision expected on November 17. Canada lost its status last year.
A country loses elimination status when the same strain of the virus has spread within it without interruption for at least 12 months.
The United States has recorded 5,412 confirmed cases so far this year, up 230 this week, the 14th week in a row that federal figures have risen by more than 100. That is more than double the 2,289 cases recorded in 2025. Pennsylvania has the most cases of any state this year, with 1,542, while Wisconsin recorded the most new infections over the past week, with 174.
“The United States is no longer a safe place for children in regards to measles,” said Noel Brewer, a public health professor at the University of North Carolina who chairs the committee reporting to PAHO on measles in the United States.
Counting dispute
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists six measles-related deaths this year, fewer than the states have reported, and says its total is subject to change. US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has asked CDC director Erica Schwartz not to count the deaths in the official tally, saying there is no evidence they were caused by measles.
The count has set Kennedy against Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Pennsylvania records a death as measles-associated when a person with confirmed measles dies within 30 days of developing symptoms, unless the death has an unrelated cause, a standard epidemiologists say the World Health Organization and the CDC have long used. The CDC says it is working with state epidemiologists on a standard definition.
Measles vaccination among US kindergarteners has fallen from 95.2 percent in the 2019–2020 school year to 92.4 percent in 2025–2026, below the 95 percent level needed to stop outbreaks. Two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine give about 97 percent protection.
