Delaware County launches vaccine campaign as Pa. measles cases reach highest level in more than 30 years

When Robert Barclay’s two daughters moved from Africa to live with him in Delaware County, getting them up-to-date on their vaccines was top of his list.

His daughters, 14-year-old Albertine and 20-year-old Ruth, were among the first clients at Delaware County Health Department’s new mobile clinic, which launched earlier this summer. The sisters did not bring their vaccination paperwork when they moved here from Africa earlier this year.

On Monday, the 33-foot-long RV trailer was set up at Observatory Park in Upper Darby to mark the beginning of the county’s back-to-school vaccination campaign. As part of the campaign, the mobile clinic will make stops across the county to provide vaccines, physicals, and STI testing.

Encouraging families to vaccinate and hosting clinics in advance of a new school year is a time-honored tradition for health departments. But vaccination efforts have extra urgency this year: Measles cases have reached their highest rate in more than 30 years in Pennsylvania, with a total of 142 cases reported as of Monday.

The highly contagious virus has not yet been reported in Delaware County, but cases are mounting in Chester and Lancaster Counties, as well as in the state of Delaware.

At the same time, vaccination rates across the state are declining. And parts of Delaware County have among the lowest measles vaccination rates in Pennsylvania.

“We don’t have to have measles here,” said Lora Siegmann Werner, director of the Delaware County Health Department.

The key, she said, is boosting vaccination rates before the virus begins to spread locally.

“This is really only a matter of time,” Werner said Monday of the possibility that the current measles outbreak reaches Delaware County. “This is our window to prevent it.”

» READ MORE: Inside Pa.’s measles outbreak: A family rides out the virus, doctors treat severely ill children

In Delaware County, 94.3% of kindergarten students had received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine in the 2024-2025 school year – just below the “herd immunity” rate that scientists say is required to prevent the spread of the disease. But the Philadelphia region is dotted with schools with lower vaccination rates, pockets of vulnerability that put communities at higher risk for an outbreak.

Getting more children vaccinated is a complex and evolving public health challenge. In many cases families have access to vaccines, but do not want them.

Some 740 families in the five-county Philadelphia region opted out of vaccination for religious reasons in 2024, a 76% increase over five years. Another 568 families claimed philosophical exemptions in 2024, a 49% jump from 2019, according to an Inquirer analysis.

» READ MORE: More than 200 Philly-area schools vulnerable to measles outbreak

The measles vaccine is typically given in two doses, when children are one year old and before they enter kindergarten. Pennsylvania requires students be vaccinated to attend school, but also allows medical, religious or philosophical exemptions, making it among the easiest places to opt out. Recently, state health officials have recommended parents vaccinate children early if they live in or plan to travel to counties where measles is circulating.

Public health leaders across the region are beginning to rethink the way they reach vaccine-hesitant families. But in Delaware County, access remains a primary barrier.

The county lost its leading healthcare provider when Crozer Health shuttered its two remaining hospitals last year.

Initiatives like the county’s new mobile clinic, called Wellness on Wheels, is designed to bring care where it is needed.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania parents will soon have easy access to school-level vaccination data to see measles risk

On Monday, the clinic vaccinated just three people, including 9-year-old Kayle. Her mother, Pearl, a nurse who declined to give her last name for privacy reasons, said she heard about the mobile clinic from Delaware County’s health center, and brought her daughter to get up-to-date on shots before starting fifth grade in the fall.

Aside from directly providing shots, Werner hopes the clinic’s presence will put vaccination top of mind for families who see the RV parked in their neighborhood.

“We don’t need to be the ones doing it — we just want people to get vaccinated,” Werner said.

Barclay, who works in corrections in Delaware County, said the clinic’s spot at Observatory Park was a convenient place for his daughters to get their second doses of needed vaccines on Monday.

The sisters moved from Africa in the spring and did not have the paperwork needed to prove to their school that they had been vaccinated as younger children.

Barclay didn’t hesitate to get them scheduled for the necessary vaccines.

“I care about my children,” he said.