Lancaster County is facing Pennsylvania’s first measles outbreak of 2026, and health officials are moving fast. Five cases have been confirmed in the county, all in school-age children and young adults who officials say were not vaccinated. Local clinics and schools have been firing off exposure notices, and with measles surging nationally, doctors are urging families to dust off those vaccine records and get overdue MMR shots on the books.
Where The Cases Turned Up And How Officials Are Responding
The Pennsylvania Department of Health traced the five cases to Lancaster County and said four are connected while one is linked to travel, according to the The Philadelphia Inquirer. State health workers are in full contact-tracing mode, notifying locations the infected people visited while they were contagious. School districts have started alerting families about possible exposures.
Anyone who may have been exposed is being urged to watch for fever, cough and the telltale rash, and to call a health care provider before heading in for care so clinics and hospitals can prepare and avoid unnecessary exposures in waiting rooms.
National Spike Has Experts Worried About Measles Status
The Lancaster cases are landing in the middle of a nationwide upswing. Federal figures show there were 733 confirmed measles cases in the United States as of Feb. 5, 2026, according to the CDC. Reporting from the Associated Press notes that ongoing chains of transmission could put the country’s measles-free designation at risk.
Public-health experts point out that recent outbreaks have largely taken root in communities with lower vaccination rates. In those pockets, the virus can race through households, schools and places of worship before anyone realizes what is happening.
What Clinicians Are Telling Parents Right Now
Doctors are not mincing words: get vaccinated. “We can save lives by just getting vaccinated,” Dr. Joseph Aracri of the Allegheny Health Network told CBS Pittsburgh, urging families to tune out misinformation and stick with evidence-based guidance…