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PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - The Pittsburgh area has managed to escape an outbreak of measles this year in several states including New York and New Jersey.
Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Karen Hacker tells Larry and John it’s because of the high vaccination rates.
Hacker tells Larry and John on KDKA Radio, 97 percent of kindergarten students here have received two doses of measles vaccine.
“There have not been any measles cases in Allegheny County nor in Pennsylvania,” said Hacker. “I think our last case of measles might have been last year.”
In Rockland County, New York children not vaccinated are barred from public places.
Hacker says measles in highly contagious.
“Literally you can just get it by breathing in the air where an infected person has been in the last two hours,” said Hacker
Measles was proclaimed eliminated from the US in 2000 but last year there were 372 cases. There have been more than 300 so far this year.
Many linked to travelers from Israel and Ukraine where there have been large outbreaks.
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