The Pennsylvania Department of Health has launched a new online measles dashboard, allowing the public to track cases by county as the statewide total surpasses 100.
Measles has been on the rise this year but remains clustered in southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly in and around Lancaster County, where 63 cases have been reported since January.
The dashboard notes six cases in Northumberland County and one in Snyder County.
Allegheny County and the surrounding area have not had any reported measles cases in the last year.
The Department of Health (DOH) says that two doses of the vaccine provide 97% lifetime protection and is encouraging those who have not been vaccinated or are considering vaccination for their children to get vaccinated now.
"Nobody who's been fully vaccinated who's had the two doses has gotten measles infection this year," said Rob Bonacci with the Pennsylvania DOH.
The dashboard is intended to increase public access to information and to provide transparency into the department's work, he said. The dashboard reports the number of cases, ages, and counties of the infected, as well as their vaccination status and whether they were hospitalized. It also tracks the number of MMR vaccines administered by the DOH. It will be updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
To increase compliance in the primarily affected area, the DOH is working with community partners to create pop-up vaccine clinics, staffed with information and readily available vaccines.
So far, they've tripled the number of vaccinations provided in Lancaster County this year compared to last year. Since April, they've administered more than 600 doses; in all of 2025, the DOH staff administered only 179 vaccinations in Lancaster.
Bonacci wants Pennsylvania residents to know that all residents are entitled to a free vaccination.
"If you are uninsured or underinsured or you don't know where to go," he said, "you can go to your local health department, like the Allegheny Health Department, or we have state health centers in nearly every county across the Commonwealth."
Children are advised to receive the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine in two doses — the first between 12-15 months and the second at 4-6 years of age. But if your child is under 1 year and will be in an area with a current outbreak, babies 6-11 months of age can receive one early dose for temporary protection. They'll still need their routine doses later on.
In August, school-level vaccination information will be available online by county. In the 2024-2025 school year, Allegheny County had nearly 97% compliance among 7th- and 12th-grade students and 94% compliance among kindergarten students. Those are the three grade levels for which schools self-report vaccination data.
If you're not sure if you've had the vaccine and would have been vaccinated in the Commonwealth, you can request a copy of your immunization records from the state. If records are unavailable, an antibody test can be administered by a healthcare provider to check your immunity.
The Department of Health says that measles spreads easily, often from an infected person's cough or sneeze. The virus can remain airborne for up to 2 hours, even after the sick person has left. The symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes, followed by a rash that starts on the head and spreads downward.
According to the CDC, there are 32 new outbreaks across the US this year. An outbreak is defined as 3 or more related cases. It brings the total number of measles cases to 2,231 so far, this year. There were 2,289 confirmed cases in all of 2025. In 2024, there were 285 cases.
"I think the most important thing for parents and families is to make sure that you are fully vaccinated with those two doses," Bonacci said. "It doesn't matter whether you live in Lancaster, Lebanon County or whether you live in Allegheny County or another county in the Commonwealth. What we know is that if you get those two doses, that you are 97% protected against the measles virus."
Read more from our partners at WESA. WVIA reporter Lydia McFarlane contributed to this report.
