Measles Killed Eight Americans This Year. None Were Vaccinated.

An infant in Wisconsin died of measles, the state's Department of Health Services reported on Nov. 5. The coroner listed measles as the immediate cause. It is Wisconsin's first measles death since 1990, and it is connected to an outbreak in the southwestern part of the state.

New York announced a child's death in Lewis County on Monday. Pennsylvania reported its sixth death of the year on Wednesday.

Nationwide, eight measles-associated deaths have been reported in 2026 — six in Pennsylvania, one in New York, one in Wisconsin. That is the highest annual toll since 1991. None of the eight people who died were vaccinated.

Wisconsin has reported 431 measles cases across 13 counties so far this year, as of Nov. 3 — its highest count in more than 35 years — with nine hospitalizations. The outbreak is no longer confined to one region. Green Lake County, in northeastern Wisconsin, confirmed its first cases.

Measles was considered eliminated in the United States by 2000. Elimination means the virus is not continuously transmitted within the country, not that it cannot return. Slipping vaccination rates have allowed outbreaks to resurge, and a vaccine-preventable disease is again killing infants and children at a pace not seen in over three decades.

"My heart is broken for the family," said Kirsten Johnson, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. "Any death of a child is a tragedy, and even more so when it is related to a vaccine-preventable disease." Johnson urged residents to evaluate their risk.

Wisconsin officials declined to release further details about the infant to protect the family's privacy.

The vaccine is highly effective: two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97 percent effective at preventing measles, according to the CDC.