Pennsylvania health officials brace for expected spread of measles outbreak

The measles outbreak has hit the state’s Amish community, which has low vaccination rates, particularly hard. Photograph: Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Pennsylvania is bracing for a wave of measles cases, with some public health officials concerned that it’s “only a matter of time” until the disease spreads beyond the outbreak’s center.

Last week the state reported its fifth measles-associated death amid 943 confirmed cases across 39 counties. The outbreak comes amid concerns that public health in the US has been hit by increasing vaccine skepticism, especially due to the power and influence of the controversial health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.