Allegheny County Kindergarten MMR Rate Falls Below Herd Immunity Threshold
Pennsylvania has confirmed 835 measles cases across 39 counties in 2026, including 164 hospitalizations and four deaths among unvaccinated residents, compared to just 16 cases statewide in 2025. Allegheny County's kindergarten MMR vaccination rate stood at 91.8% for the 2025-26 school year, below the 95% threshold needed to prevent community spread, continuing a decade-long decline. The MMR vaccine is available at no cost to Medicaid-enrolled, uninsured, and underinsured children at Pennsylvania's 59 state health centers. The outbreak underscores how declining childhood vaccination coverage is driving disease resurgence in a state where Medicaid covers a large share of pediatric immunizations.
State Medicaid agencies and managed care plans serving pediatric populations face rising outbreak-response and preventive care costs, and must intensify outreach to close vaccination gaps among Medicaid-enrolled children before coverage drops further below herd-immunity thresholds.
CHIP
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