PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As Pennsylvania deals with its worst measles outbreak in 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new data showing a drop-off in childhood vaccinations.
According to the CDC, vaccine exemptions hit an all-time high nationally last year with 4.2% of kindergartners remaining unprotected, up from 3.6% the year prior. It works out to more than 155,000 kids going unvaccinated.
“The vaccination rate for measles is going down and at the same time the exemptions are going up. It’s very worrying,” said Dr. Victor Alos Rullan, an Delaware County epidemiologist. He believes it could lead to a public health crisis because of how easily the measles virus spreads.
“It has been estimated [that] for every single case of measles, that person can actually have the potential to transmit the infection to 12 to 18 additional cases.”
The CDC reported 2,566 measles cases and 38 outbreaks nationwide in 2026 so far, surpassing last year’s total of 2,289. Pennsylvania has a total of more than 300 cases statewide, with 60 new infections reported in the past week.
The current measles outbreak is hitting Lancaster County the hardest with 162 total cases. State officials this week confirmed new positive cases in the county. Individuals participating in a Millersville University soccer camp on Aug. 4-5 and people at a Whole Foods on Fruitville Pike in Lancaster on Aug. 12 may have been exposed.
Meanwhile, Chester County has 37 cases and Montgomery County has three, but the case count in Philadelphia and Delaware counties remains at zero.
According to Rullan, this comes as Pennsylvania has seen its vaccination rate decline 5% since 2017.
“You see these numbers and it makes you look deeper into the data, like, what is going on? But this is following these national trends published by the CDC that [show] clearly the vaccination rates for measles is going down.”
