Vaccination push<\/p>\n
About 300 DOH staff are working with residents, community organizations and health care providers on the outbreak response, the department said. State health center staff have given more than 6,100 MMR vaccinations at 210 pop-up clinics in affected communities since the outbreak began in late April. Department nurses have given more than 9,300 MMR doses this year at pop-up clinics and state health centers combined, and dozens more clinics are scheduled in the coming weeks and months based on community interest and need.<\/p>\n
Health care providers statewide typically give about 25,000 MMR doses a month. More than 56,000 were given in September and more than 23,000 in the first two weeks of October, according to DOH. The department\u2019s measles response team also meets remotely every other week with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s measles response team.<\/p>\n
Getting vaccinated<\/p>\n
According to DOH, the MMR vaccine, given in two doses, provides 97% lifetime protection. Because measles continues to spread, DOH recommends an additional early \u201czero dose\u201d for infants 6 through 11 months old who live in or travel to counties flagged on the dashboard for sustained community transmission; the early dose does not replace the two routine doses. Children 12 months and older who have not had any dose should get one now and a second dose at least 28 days later.<\/p>\n
People who have two documented doses of MMR do not need another. Adults who have only one dose, or who cannot find their vaccination records, should talk with a health care provider or pharmacist about getting vaccinated, the department said.<\/p>\n
MMR vaccine is available by contacting a health care provider, a county or municipal health department<\/a>, a DOH State Health Center<\/a>, a Federally Qualified Health Center<\/a> or the Vaccines for Children<\/a> program.<\/p>\n Symptoms and spread<\/p>\n Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that can cause serious short- and long-term health problems, including pneumonia and brain swelling, according to DOH. Nearly 20% of people identified by DOH with measles have been hospitalized. Death from measles, though rare, occurs in one to three patients per 1,000 cases.<\/p>\n Measles spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The virus remains infectious in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours after the infected person leaves the area.<\/p>\n Symptoms begin with fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis), followed a few days later by a rash that starts on the head and spreads downward. Symptoms can start seven to 21 days after exposure, and people are typically contagious four days before and four days after the rash begins.<\/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 \n Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.\n <\/p>\n \n Error! There was an error processing your request.\n <\/p>\n Get Our Free Newsletters <\/p>\n Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters.<\/p>\n Sign Up Today!<\/p>\n Morning Headlines:\u00a0Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter?\u00a0<\/p>\n Afternoon Update:\u00a0What’s happening today? Here’s your update!<\/p>\n Daily Obits:\u00a0Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Keep your news local<\/p>\n Access to independent, local news is important, do you agree? <\/p>\n We work hard to deliver timely, relevant news, for free. 100% of your contribution to NorthcentralPa.com goes directly to helping us cover news and events in the region.<\/p>\n Thank you for saying that local news matters!<\/p>\n
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harrisburg, Pa. \u2014 Pennsylvania has confirmed 1,260 measles cases across 43 counties so far this year, as of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[118458,2682,103908,4913,54085,118452,52934,28,24528,30,29,99124,126537],"class_list":["post-308836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-877-pa-health","tag-franklin-county","tag-hospitalizations","tag-measles","tag-measles-cases","tag-measles-dashboard","tag-mmr-vaccine","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-department-of-health","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pop-up-clinics","tag-zero-dose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308836","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=308836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}