Why the CDC is excluding measles deaths in Pennsylvania even as outbreak appears to be ‘accelerating’

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refuses to count four measles deaths in the state though doctors are ‘seeing new forms’ of disease The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its measles dashboard on Friday – but it’s still not counting four measles deaths in Pennsylvania , where the outbreak appears to be accelerating and cases are appearing in ways providers have never seen before. Members of Congress on Monday requested an “immediate briefing” on the decision to change how measles deaths are reported as cases continue to rise throughout the United States, reaching levels not seen in decades. A possible measles exposure was reported in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia last week.

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Scoop News DeskPennsylvania · Published Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTCUpdated Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 2:57 PM UTC

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The delay in death reporting is “curious” even after the CDC switched how it counts deaths, said Debra Houry, former CDC chief medical officer. Tests have a 24-hour turnaround time. “I have called them up on a Thursday before the holiday weekend and arranged for them to do testing before it closed at noon the following day,” Goldman said. “They have provided us with information, and they have provided us with really really good support.” While there is a likely undercount of cases, “it’s not because they couldn’t get a test”, he said. “It’s because they were sick at home and did not seek medical care.” The response hasn’t been limited to the health department, Houry noted. “Health systems and clinicians are really stepping up across the state to get vaccines to their communities.” Before this outbreak, Goldman was the rare American doctor who had seen measles, once in 1988 and once in 1992.

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