PHILADELPHIA — A patient who came to a hospital emergency room in Montgomery County is Pennsylvania’s first confirmed measles case this year amid a national surge of the highly contagious virus, according to health officials.

According to the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services Office of Public Health, an infected patient was seen at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia on Wednesday. No other details about the patient were available Saturday.

“More information will be shared regarding exposure sites, dates and times when available,” a spokesperson for the county’s public health office said in a written statement. “CHOP and the Office of Public Health have been in contact with potentially affected individuals.”

Measles is a highly infectious virus that spreads through breathing in infected air or touching infected surfaces, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness can be especially dangerous for children under 5, pregnant people, and those with weakened immune systems.

A measles infection can lead to respiratory failure, inflammation of the brain, and death. The virus can also, in rare cases, cause a yearslong decline of the brain that results in death. Symptoms, which include a high fever, cough, koplik spots (lesions on the inner lining of cheeks) and a rash, can appear about a week or two after exposure.

The local case is one of 164 across nine states this year as of Thursday, according to the CDC’s most recent data.

On Wednesday, Texas health officials announced the death of an unvaccinated school-aged child in rural West Texas, marking the first measles-related fatality in the nation since 2015.

In response to the growing outbreak, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been critical of long-established vaccines, expressed minimal concern over the rise in cases.

“We’re following the measles epidemic every day,” Kennedy said during President Donald Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. ... So it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.”

In January 2024, there were eight reported measles cases in Philadelphia, including five infected children from a Northeast day-care center.

The first of six people to be hospitalized for treatment was an infant at CHOP, who contracted the disease in early December 2023 while outside the country.

While the United States eliminated measles in 2000, Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at CHOP, said the ongoing outbreaks are caused by a “critical percentage” of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children.

Based on a new report from Children First PA, the non-medical exemption rate of Philadelphia kindergartners (those who request vaccination exemptions for reasons other than medical need) quadrupled from 0.6% to 2.4% between 2015 and 2024.

Offit said the reason a growing number of families are avoiding the MMR vaccine is because of the spread of disinformation and the mishandling of cases by figures like Kennedy.

“You have someone who’s the head of Health and Human Services who hasn’t stood up and said the one thing you want to hear him say, which is get vaccinated and vaccinate your children.”

Of every 1,000 children who are infected with the disease, between one and three will die, according to the Philadelphia Department of Health.

Nearly 34% of the 164 reported measles cases in 2025 involve children 5 and under, and 48% are between ages 5 and 19, according to the CDC.

To prevent the contraction and spread of the disease, health officials highly recommend the MMR vaccine. One dose, which babies can receive when they are a year old, is 93% effective at preventing measles, according to the CDC . Two doses improve that rate to 97%.

Free MMR vaccines are available to all residents at any Philadelphia health center.

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(Staff writers Michelle Myers and Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.)

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