AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Ars Technica, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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A 39-year-old unvaccinated woman in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, has become the sixth person to die from measles amid a state outbreak that began in April and has affected over a thousand people. She died on Saturday, October 10, after testing positive for the virus. According to an advisory posted by Franklin County Coroner Jordan Conner, her death meets the state health department’s definition of a measles death. The coroner’s office stated the primary cause was a probable acute cardiac event due to possible complications from the measles.

The previous five deaths included a newborn, a 6-week-old infant, an 18-year-old, a 20-year-old, and a 40-year-old. All six deceased individuals were unvaccinated; the two infants were too young to have received vaccinations. As of Friday, October 9, Pennsylvania’s health department reported 1,136 cases since the start of the year, with 1,124 linked to the current outbreak. Twenty-one-eight people have been hospitalized, and the outbreak now spans 41 of the state’s 67 counties. There were 157 new cases reported in the previous week alone.

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000 but is returning due to misinformation and declining vaccination rates. The nationwide case count for the year has reached 4,080, the highest total since 1991. Pennsylvania’s outbreak is also the largest on record since that year. Experts from the Pan American Health Organization are expected to meet in November to review US data, a process widely expected to result in the loss of the country’s measles elimination status. Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has only included two of the six deaths so far in its reporting.