US measles cases surge to highest level since disease was 'eliminated'

(The Hill) - The United States has broken its record for the highest number of measles cases in the country since the disease was eliminated in 2000. 

It comes amid falling childhood vaccination rates and a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment fueled by lingering COVID-era distrust in public health authorities and a strengthening anti-vaccine movement. 

Just halfway through the year, there have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases across 38 states and the District of Columbia, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation.  

That’s the most since 1992, surpassing the previous record of 1,274 cases from all of 2019. Experts say this year’s cases are likely severely undercounted because many are going unreported.  

There have been at least 155 hospitalizations and three confirmed deaths from measles this year, including two otherwise healthy but unvaccinated children in Texas. A third death was reported in New Mexico in an unvaccinated adult who tested positive after dying 

Only three measles deaths were reported between 2001 and 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Measles was officially eliminated in 2000 due to a highly effective vaccination program, meaning there has not been continuous transmission for more than a year at a time. But vaccinations have waned, and that status could be threatened. 

According to the CDC, vaccination coverage for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) among kindergarteners is below the 95 percent target — and much lower in some communities. And it’s decreasing. During the 2023 to 2024 school year, just under 93 percent of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine. 

According to the most recent CDC data, 92 percent of measles cases in 2025 were in people who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. The agency’s dashboard is updated every Wednesday, while Johns Hopkins updates every weekday. 

The biggest outbreak in the country has been in West Texas, predominantly centered among members of a local Mennonite community. Officials have recorded 790 cases this year statewide, though the true number is likely much higher. While that outbreak has been slowing, it has also spread to bordering states. 

There have been at least 27 total outbreaks – defined as three or more related cases – and at least 38 states have reported at least one case this year. 

Many of the nationwide clusters seem to be linked to travel, often with an unvaccinated person catching the virus abroad and then spreading it among unvaccinated community members.  

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told a group of vaccine advisors in April that more than 90 percent of the cases are “driven by transmission in close-knit, undervaccinated communities.”    

The 2019 outbreak was driven largely by spread among under-vaccinated Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City and Rockland County that had long been targets of the anti-vaccine movement.  

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to 9 out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC.