Pennsylvania health care providers are giving about twice as many measles, mumps and rubella vaccine doses as usual, according to state Department of Health figures, as the state fights what The Hill described as its worst measles outbreak in more than 35 years.
Providers in the state typically administer about 25,000 MMR doses a month. That number topped 49,000 in August, and more than 53,000 doses had been given in September as of the department’s Oct. 2 update, The Hill reported.
The department said 977 measles cases had been confirmed in 39 counties so far this year, 34 of them since Sept. 30, and that 195 people had been hospitalized. All but four of the people infected were not fully vaccinated, the agency said. More than two-thirds of the state’s cases involve adults, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, known as CIDRAP.
Deaths and a dispute with federal officials
Pennsylvania has reported five measles-associated deaths in 2026, and none of the five people had been vaccinated, Reuters reported. The latest, announced Sept. 30, involved a Lancaster County resident. It was the third such death in that county; Jefferson and Mifflin counties have each recorded one, CIDRAP reported.
The national count kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists only two measles-related deaths this year and does not say where they occurred. That gap has fueled a public feud between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over what counts as a measles death, according to The Hill. According to Reuters, the CDC says it and state epidemiologists are trying to agree on a uniform definition.
The CDC has also said this year that, for its count, the National Center for Health Statistics must confirm measles deaths, a step CIDRAP said has substantially delayed confirmation of Pennsylvania’s deaths. The state health department has begun the process of requesting emergency help through the CDC’s Epi-Aid program, but only if the federal agency publicly acknowledges every death the state has reported, The Hill said.
Nationwide, the CDC counted 3,887 confirmed measles cases as of Oct. 1, and Pennsylvania remains the center of the surge, according to Reuters. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles, according to the state health department.
Counties brace for spread
Local officials expect the virus to keep moving, and Pennsylvania’s patchwork public health system complicates the response, The Guardian reported. Just seven of the state’s 67 counties operate their own health departments.
Lancaster County, which has the largest number of cases, is not one of them. Many of its infections are believed to be among Amish residents and members of similar religious groups, where MMR vaccination rates have historically been low. Doctors, health officials and other community members there are now trying to create a county health department.
Next door, Chester County has the third-highest case count in the state, and its health department director, Jeanne Franklin, said officials are planning for more cases to cross the county line. “It’s going to keep going and find a person who isn’t vaccinated,” she told The Guardian. Franklin said many Amish residents went unvaccinated not out of opposition to vaccines but because they were unaware of them or see doctors less often than other residents, and that many are now willing to talk about the vaccine as neighbors fall ill.
In Montgomery County, the state’s third most populous, Dr. Richard Lorraine, medical director of the county’s public health office, said officials see cases as a matter of time. The county is concentrating on immunization, including clinics run with pharmacies that will vaccinate residents whether or not they have insurance, he said.
What’s next
With 977 confirmed cases as of Oct. 2, Pennsylvania is approaching 1,000 for the year, and the national total is closing in on 4,000. The disagreement between state and federal officials over how to count measles deaths remains unresolved. The CDC updates its national measles figures weekly.
