WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania’s health department is asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for emergency outbreak help known as Epi-Aid — and tying that request to a demand that the agency publicly recognize four measles-associated deaths the state has reported, according to a Reuters exclusive published Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.

In a letter to CDC Director Erica Schwartz sent Wednesday evening and reviewed by Reuters, Health Secretary Debra Bogen said the department had begun the Epi-Aid process. “The CDC’s choice not to publicly recognize the deaths undermines our response,” Bogen wrote. “For this reason, if CDC is unable to transparently and accurately communicate information about those measles-associated deaths, the Department will respectfully rescind our request for a CDC Epi-Aid.”

Reuters reported the outbreak has grown to more than 700 confirmed cases across 37 counties with four measles-associated deaths, according to the state health department. The deaths have become a flashpoint between Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Reuters said has cast doubt on whether deaths in U.S. measles outbreaks since he took office were due to the virus and instructed CDC not to include the Pennsylvania fatalities in a national tally. Disease experts quoted in the story called that highly unusual interference in state determinations.

HHS spokesperson Grace Davis Jamison told Reuters CDC had not received Pennsylvania’s request through “normal channels,” and that outbreak assistance is separate from how CDC tabulates fatality data. “CDC will not submit to political blackmail that conditions critical public health assistance,” Jamison said, accusing Shapiro of politicizing the process. Kennedy and Schwartz have previously blamed Shapiro for not accepting earlier Epi-Aid offers; the state had resisted additional CDC personnel while arguing it had the outbreak under control, Reuters reported.

Epi-Aid typically sends CDC experts on-site for one to three weeks. Pennsylvania already has permanently assigned CDC career staff assisting the response. State data cited by Reuters show MMR doses administered by the health department fell from more than 3,500 in August to about 1,100 in the first half of September as cases accelerated beyond the Lancaster County epicenter, including a fatality announced this week in Mifflin County.

Sources