Measles cases in the US state of Pennsylvania have passed 1,350 this year, according to the state health department, the most of any of the 50 states. Ajker Patrika reported the figures from a story in the British daily The Independent.
More than a third of the cases are in Lancaster County, home to the largest Amish population in the United States, which has become the centre of the country's worst measles outbreak in 35 years. Three people have died of measles or measles symptoms in Lancaster and two in other counties.
Vaccination rates have long been low among the Amish, and they are now falling in the wider population too, even though the US declared measles eliminated in 2000. A prominent doctor warned that nobody who is unvaccinated or has never had measles is safe from the virus.
Community leaders say the true number of cases is probably much higher, because many sick people never see a doctor. The outbreak has hit hardest in the "plain community" of Amish and conservative Mennonites, who dress simply and limit their use of modern technology. Attitudes to vaccines vary among them, and culture and long habit are thought to matter more than religious rules.
These communities are not cut off: their members meet other people at farm markets, doctors' surgeries and elsewhere, so measles spreading among them can reach the wider public. Mennonite communities in Texas and other areas had outbreaks in 2025, and cases have been reported in most US states this year.
Measles is highly contagious and vaccination is the main protection. The Pennsylvania outbreak shows how a disease declared eliminated can return when vaccination rates fall.
Photo: a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (illustrative), Dctrzl / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Ajker Patrika
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