By ALEXA LARDIERI, US HEALTH EDITOR and ANNA WRIGHT, US REPORTER
Published: 22:04 BST, 2 September 2026 | Updated: 22:09 BST, 2 September 2026
A major children's hospital caring for some of the sickest patients is facing measles exposure after visitors tested positive for the highly infectious virus.
Two people who visited various locations throughout UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh tested positive for measles, which is considered to be the most infectious disease.
Dr Donald Yealy, UPMC’s chief medical officer and chair of emergency medicine, told TribLive Tuesday that the exposure involved a child and two parents who were at the hospital for a scheduled visit on August 27.
The virus remains in the air for two hours after a sick person has passed through and it is able to infect nine out of every ten unvaccinated individuals who are exposed.
Yealy declined to say whether the hospital visit was measles-related, but health officials said the pair were not Allegheny County residents and left the area afterward.
The potential exposure occurred in the hospital’s main lobby, third-floor waiting and clinic areas, cafeteria and elevators, putting hundreds of people at risk, health officials said.
'It is a large number of people, bigger than what we’ve seen before,' Yealy said.
This is the third confirmed measles case at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh this year.
Two people who visited various locations throughout UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh tested positive for measles
Measles remains in the air for two hours after an infected person has passed through and it is able to infect nine out of every ten unvaccinated individuals who are exposed (stock image)
The first involved a Jefferson County resident who tested positive on August 20 after visiting the hospital on August 12 and 18. It marked the first confirmed measles case in Allegheny County since 2019.
UPMC is notifying exposed patients and staff, while the Allegheny County Health Department is urging anyone who was in those areas to check their vaccination status and contact a doctor for guidance.
These events come after a hospital in Danville, Pennsylvania, locked down its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after a visitor tested positive for measles and the state reported two measles deaths, the first in 35 years.
