pa.gov\/measles.<\/a><\/p>\nAccording to the DOH, they are proactively working with residents, community organizations, and health care providers to combat the measles outbreak in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
The organization says combative efforts are occurring through access to fact-based information and access to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.<\/p>\n
State health officials have administered more than\u00a03,700\u00a0MMR vaccinations\u00a0at more than 100\u00a0pop-up vaccination clinics in the affected communities since the outbreak began in late April, the DOH says.<\/p>\n
Getting Vaccinated<\/p>\n
Officials urge Pa. residents to get vaccinated, saying this is the best protection against measles. The MMR vaccine is given in a two-dose series and provides 97% protection against measles after two doses.<\/p>\n
MMR vaccine is available across the state by contacting a health care provider, county or municipal health department, DOH State Health Center, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), or a Vaccines for Children (VFC) program.<\/p>\n
Measles Symptoms and Transmission<\/p>\n
The DOH says measles is a highly contagious virus that can cause serious short- and long-term health problems, including pneumonia and brain swelling, with nearly 20% of people who contract measles being hospitalized.<\/p>\n
Measles spreads when a person who is infected breathes, coughs, or sneezes. The virus remains infectious in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours after the person with the infection leaves the area.<\/p>\n
Symptoms begin with fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis), followed by a rash that starts on the head and spreads downward. Without proper protection or supportive care, measles can be deadly. Symptoms can start 7 to 21 days after exposure.<\/p>\n
People who believe they were exposed to measles and are experiencing symptoms should contact their health care provider or call DOH\u2019s toll-free hotline at 877-PA-HEALTH (877-724-3258).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. – There have been a total of 540 measles cases confirmed across 36 counties in Pennsylvania,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48408,4913,99116,104392,28,30,29,1394,7618,41793],"class_list":["post-277660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-department-of-health","tag-measles","tag-measles-outbreak","tag-measles-vaccine","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-vaccination","tag-vaccine","tag-vaccine-effectiveness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277660","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=277660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}