Pennsylvania's ongoing measles outbreak is approaching 700 confirmed cases, state health officials said this week, as the illness continues to spread among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health counted 693 cases as of Monday, spread across 38 counties, according to reporting from radio network WORLD. More than 130 people have been hospitalized during the outbreak. Two deaths, both infants too young to have received the measles vaccine, occurred last month, and a coroner in rural Jefferson County reported a third death, involving a 40-year-old woman, that the state is still investigating as potentially measles-related.
Health officials say the pattern in Pennsylvania mirrors what public health experts have long said about measles: it spreads overwhelmingly among people who have not been vaccinated. Of the nearly 700 cases counted in the outbreak, only four involved someone who had received the measles vaccine. Public health authorities note that two doses of the vaccine are about 97 percent effective at preventing infection.
The outbreak in Pennsylvania is part of a larger national picture. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted more than 3,000 measles cases nationwide so far this year, a notably elevated total driven in part by pockets of lower vaccination coverage in various communities.
Watch for updated case counts and hospitalization figures from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and whether the state's investigation confirms the reported third measles-related death.
How effective is the measles vaccine?
Two doses of the measles vaccine are about 97 percent effective at preventing infection, according to the CDC.
Who has been most affected by the Pennsylvania outbreak?
Almost every case has involved someone who was unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, including the two infants who died.