By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-14 16:51:58 | Updated at 2026-10-15 19:00:59
1 day ago
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday it would deploy additional support to Pennsylvania after the state requested assistance to help investigate its ongoing measles outbreak.
The support comes through the Epi-Aid program, a rapid CDC response that helps investigate and contain urgent public health threats. These include infectious and noninfectious disease outbreaks. State officials retain overall leadership of the investigation, while the CDC team provides technical support.
The federal response comes amid a widening U.S. measles outbreak, with Pennsylvania reporting 1,136 cases as of Oct. 9.
The state’s official measles dashboard also lists five measles-associated deaths as of that date. On Monday, however, the Franklin County coroner ruled that the death of a 39-year-old woman met Pennsylvania’s definition of a measles-associated death, bringing the state’s total to six this year.
The CDC said that Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, Kansas, New Mexico, and Wisconsin have requested Epi-Aids. The agency added that these states worked with federal teams to help bring their outbreaks under control.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last week that the state would seek federal assistance in responding to its own measles outbreak, including support from the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC.
Neither Hochul’s office nor the New York State Department of Health has confirmed whether a formal request has been submitted.
The announcement followed Hochul’s declaration of a statewide disaster emergency over New York’s outbreak, the first such declaration by a U.S. state since measles cases began increasing in 2025. New York had reported 126 measles cases as of Oct. 13.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for further comment but didn’t receive a response by publication time.
Death Count
The CDC has confirmed two measles-associated deaths nationwide in 2026 but has not identified the states involved.
The differing totals reported between Pennsylvania and the CDC reflect different reporting standards.
According to Pennsylvania’s case definition, a death is considered measles-associated when it occurs within 30 days of symptom onset in a person who tested positive for measles, unless an unrelated cause, such as a motor vehicle crash, explains the death.
The CDC attributes a death to measles only when the National Center for Health Statistics lists measles as the underlying cause on the death certificate.
The differing death counts have become a point of contention between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department oversees the CDC.
The two officials exchanged criticism on social media in August, accusing each other of politicizing Pennsylvania’s outbreak. Kennedy has backed county-level findings over the state’s reporting, which he described as premature.
Vaccination Campaign
The Pennsylvania Department of Health said that this year, as of Oct. 9, its staff had administered 9,285 measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine doses statewide.
Boxes and vials of the measles, mumps, rubella virus vaccine at a vaccine clinic put on by the Lubbock Public Health Department in Lubbock, Texas, on March 1, 2025. Jan Sonnenmair /Getty Images
Vaccination efforts accelerated sharply after the outbreak began in late April, with the largest number of doses administered in August and September before declining in early October, according to the department.
Health officials have continued to encourage vaccination as the primary measure for preventing the spread of measles.
Reuters contributed to this report.
