The five cases of measles reported in Lancaster County on Monday are the first identified in the state this year and meet the federal definition of an outbreak, prompting urgent action by public health officials to control the virus’ spread.
State Department of Health officials are conducting contact tracing for the five unvaccinated individuals, Press Secretary Neil Ruhland said. Contact tracing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, includes identifying those who have been in proximity to the individuals with measles and the places the infected people have visited.
Contact tracing is a critical moment as public health authorities work to limit the spread of the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus. Symptoms of measles infection can take as long as two weeks to develop, which means a person could unwittingly spread the virus without knowing they are infected for that long. Once contact tracing locates an individual who has been in proximity to a measles case, they are notified and advised of steps, like quarantining at home, to break further transmission of the virus.
While these are the county’s first cases in 2026, last April the health department reported a measles case when an unvaccinated person who traveled to Texas visited Lancaster County and was treated at WellSpan Ephrata. In August, an out-of-state traveler who had measles visited the Midway Mennonite Reception Center and potentially exposed others to the virus, although no other cases were reported.
READ: Measles cases have been reported in Lancaster County; here’s what you need to know
Prior to these cases, Lancaster County had not seen a case of measles in six years.
The increase in Lancaster County measles cases is part of a nationwide trend. The CDC reported that 2,267 measles cases occurred in the U.S. in 2025, more than any other year this century. In 2000, the Pan American Health Association assigned the United States its measles elimination status, meaning there was not continuous transmission for 12 months. Now the U.S. will likely lose that status.
Ruhland said Tuesday the Department of Health is limited in the information it can share with the public, due to patient confidentiality laws. The department is allowed to share the number of cases and “potentially” locations where people who are infected visited, Ruhland said.
But that doesn’t mean the public will always be alerted when a case of measles occurs.
Typically, the department notifies the public if it cannot reasonably identify all the people exposed to an infectious disease like measles, Ruhland said last April.
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