{"id":110633,"date":"2026-02-11T01:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/110633\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T01:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:39:08","slug":"lancaster-county-reports-pennsylvanias-only-measles-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/110633\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancaster County reports Pennsylvania\u2019s only measles cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) \u2013 The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported five measles cases in Lancaster County that could potentially be linked to the outbreak in South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the DOH, contact tracing is underway, and all five cases involve patients who have not been vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"#sailthru-signup-widget\" data-ylk=\"slk:Close;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Watch for us in your inbox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Subscribe Now<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt only takes one person who is traveling and not immune to be exposed to the measles and then bring it back to Pennsylvania,\u201d said Dr. John Goldman, an infectious disease expert with UPMC. \u201cThe measles is kind of the canary of the coal mine, meaning that if vaccination rates fall, it\u2019s going to be one of the viruses that come back first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Experts like Goldman maintain that the best defence against the disease is the MMR vaccine. The <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.aap.org\/redbook\/resources\/15585?_gl=1*1fl4hp1*_gcl_au*Nzg0MjU4NjUzLjE3NzA3NjI4MDA.*_ga*ODY0OTAyMjQ3LjE3NzA3NjI4MDM.*_ga_GMZCQS1K47*czE3NzA3NjI4MDIkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzA3NjI4MDIkajYwJGwwJGgw*_ga_FD9D3XZVQQ*czE3NzA3NjI4MDIkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzA3NjI4MDIkajYwJGwwJGgw?autologincheck=redirected\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:American Academy of Pediatrics;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a> recommends children receive the first dose at 12 to 15 months, and the second between four and six years old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">To reach herd immunity for measles, roughly 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated, according to the academy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\/news\/us-world\/ap-take-the-vaccine-please-a-top-us-health-official-says-in-an-appeal-as-measles-cases-rise\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:\u2018Take the vaccine, please,\u2019 a top US health official says in an appeal as measles cases rise;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> \u2018Take the vaccine, please,\u2019 a top US health official says in an appeal as measles cases rise <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/healthmap.org\/measles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:A map;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">A map<\/a> created with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that part of the Midstate does not meet that threshold. In Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties, less than 70% of the population are fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWhat we see is that our rates have fallen below that critical threshold,\u201d said Dr. Evan Shirey, a Penn State Health pediatric infectious disease expert. \u201cThe vaccination is very safe and very effective. We\u2019ve been doing this for decades and have had billions of people in the world who have received the MMR vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) \u2013 The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported five measles cases in Lancaster County that could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52933,3685,4913,52934,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-110633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-john-goldman","tag-lancaster-county","tag-measles","tag-mmr-vaccine","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}