The United States has confirmed six measles-related deaths this year, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as the country experiences its worst resurgence of the highly contagious disease in decades.
The updated figure, published on the agency’s website on Thursday, doubles the number of deaths recorded in 2025 and highlights the continued spread of a virus declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.
Measles cases in the country have exceeded 5,000 for the first time since 1991, while an expert commission of the Pan American Health Organisation is expected to decide in the coming days whether the United States should retain its measles-free status.
Pennsylvania has been the worst-hit state in the outbreak. As of November 4, the state had recorded six measles-associated deaths this year.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has also reported the death of an infant, while New York recorded its first known measles-related death in more than 30 years.
However, the CDC did not identify the states where the six deaths in its latest report occurred.
The difference in reported figures followed a change in the agency’s approach to tracking measles fatalities under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The CDC moved from relying on figures provided by state health departments to using mortality data from the National Centre for Health Statistics.
