{"id":308431,"date":"2026-10-17T02:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308431\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T02:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:34:09","slug":"cdc-to-send-disease-detective-to-pennsylvania-measles-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308431\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC to send disease detective to Pennsylvania measles outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom<\/a>HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania reported 43 additional measles cases Friday, bringing the statewide total to 1,260 this year as the federal government prepares to send more resources to help contain the outbreak.<\/p>\n

Lancaster and Mifflin counties continue to lead the state in cases. Pennsylvania has associated five deaths with measles this year and is investigating a sixth possible measles-associated death.<\/p>\n

Federal government pledges additional support <\/p>\n

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a visit to Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Thursday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would send additional help to Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week we finally got the request from Pennsylvania,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThey were politicizing the outbreak there and didn\u2019t want it, or they didn\u2019t want help from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

HHS said a CDC \u201cdisease detective\u201d was expected to arrive in Pennsylvania this week. The federal government is also providing nearly $4 million in one-time funding to support the state\u2019s measles response through most of 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Pennsylvania suffered,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cNow they\u2019ve asked us to come in and help me do that. And I\u2019m confident that will bring that outbreak to a quick close.\u201d<\/p>\n

HHS did not specify how the money would be used or what role the disease detective would play in Pennsylvania\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

Shapiro defends state and local response<\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro responded to Kennedy\u2019s comments Friday during a visit to Chester County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing this all across Pennsylvania,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

Shapiro criticized Kennedy for previously questioning deaths Pennsylvania officials have associated with measles. The governor also praised state and local efforts that resulted in 55,000 vaccinations last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy? Because people are listening to actual medical experts, not people who are spewing nonsense in Washington, D.C.,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cAnd as a result of that, we\u2019re giving ourselves a fighting chance to be able to get through this and protect our citizens and protect our neighbors, protect the people around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

HHS said Kennedy and the CDC director recommend the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine as the most effective protection against measles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 Pennsylvania reported 43 additional measles cases Friday, bringing the statewide total to 1,260 this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12429,126414,68601,1557,126412,4124,5718,100079,126413,33,6103,3685,50284,54085,114611,99116,3686,52934,50383,28,30,99117,29,523,2303,26639,3415,85,126415,99467,101649,24233,78],"class_list":["post-308431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-cdc","tag-cdc-director","tag-centers","tag-chester-county","tag-disease-detective","tag-federal-funding","tag-federal-government","tag-health-and-human-services","tag-hhs","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-kennedy","tag-lancaster-county","tag-measle","tag-measles-cases","tag-measles-deaths","tag-measles-outbreak","tag-mifflin-county","tag-mmr-vaccine","tag-outbreak","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-measles","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-people","tag-public-health","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-shapiro","tag-state","tag-statewide-total","tag-vaccinations","tag-virginia-beach","tag-visit","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308431","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=308431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}