The United States lost its measles elimination status after infections crossed a 12-month threshold of continuous domestic transmission.
International health experts reported the change. The Pan American Health Organization commission reviewed epidemiological data and determined the country no longer qualifies as having eliminated the virus, a source close to the process told CNN, according to The Guardian.
The decision arrives 26 years after PAHO verified the U.S. had interrupted endemic transmission of the illness in 2000. More than 5,400 confirmed measles cases have been recorded nationwide in 2026.
That total is more than double the 2,289 cases reported during 2025, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Johns Hopkins University International Vaccine Access Center tracker. States have reported 10 measles-associated deaths this year, including recent infant fatalities in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“That is a tremendous step backwards,” said Dr Paul Offit, who serves as an attending physician in the infectious diseases division at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and directs the institution’s Vaccine Education Center.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a 2021 book wrote that Americans had been "misled … into believing that measles is a deadly disease." He said measles outbreaks had been "fabricated" to push people towards vaccines. https://t.co/lBXK42mpjj pic.twitter.com/lo7ZA0nv8F
The rising case counts have triggered 43 new outbreaks this year across 13 states, which have recorded more than 100 cases each. Declining vaccination rates among kindergarten students drove the spread.
Coverage dropped from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 92.4 percent. That rate falls short of the 95 percent threshold required to sustain herd immunity.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimate an economic cost of nearly $83 million for this year’s outbreaks based on current case counts. The overall sum encompasses nearly $25 million in lost productivity, $56 million spent on public health responses, and upwards of $1.8 million in direct medical outlays.
Mattingly said municipal and state health agencies continually redirecting funds toward measles instead of other priorities causes expenses to accumulate rapidly whenever these clusters emerge.
State records also reflect specific financial tolls. The 48 New York cases in 2025 generated about $1.1 million, a figure comprising roughly $749,000 for public health measures, $333,000 for lost productivity, and about $24,500 in direct medical bills.
In Texas, the epicenter of the largest U.S. measles outbreak in 2025 with 803 cases, costs reached nearly $13 million, including $9 million in public health expenses, $4 million in productivity losses, and around $288,000 in direct medical care.
Adults aged 20 and older account for 41 percent of this year’s cases, while people aged 5 to 19 represent 40 percent, according to federal data. Unvaccinated people or those with unknown vaccination histories make up 96 percent of all measles patients in the current surge.
The measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine provides about 97 percent protection after two doses, according to public health officials.
“We’re starting to see a whole bunch of people who decided not to get vaccinated as kids or have never gotten exposed to measles because they benefited from herd immunity, who now make it into adulthood and risk potentially getting quite seriously ill and requiring very significant medical expenses, or dying at the hospital,” said Dr. William Moss.
“Loss of measles elimination status in the US signals to the world that we are not up to this task and may diminish their own aspirations to achieve and sustain measles elimination,” said William Moss, MD, MPH, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. William Moss, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Earlier coverage: Experts Review Whether US Has Lost Official Measles-Free Status
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