U.S. measles cases hit 1,842, outbreak spread threatens elimination status
Measles cases reached 1,842 across 25 outbreaks, with 93% tied to chains of transmission as falling MMR coverage pushed the U.S. toward losing elimination status.
Measles has surged to 1,842 confirmed U.S. cases, spread across 25 outbreaks and more than 30 jurisdictions, a level that is pressuring the country’s elimination status and exposing how fragile post-elimination public health defenses have become. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 93% of this year’s cases, 1,712 of 1,842, were outbreak-associated, while 12 cases were found among international visitors.
The outbreak map stretches from Alaska and Arizona to Texas, New York, Washington and Wisconsin, showing that the virus has not remained confined to one region. South Carolina was the largest flashpoint, accounting for the majority of this year’s total before health officials declared that outbreak over. The South Carolina Department of Public Health later said the episode totaled 997 cases from October 2025 through March 2026, with the last confirmed case reported March 15. Utah’s outbreak remains active and has produced more than 400 infections this year after beginning in June 2025, according to state officials; local reporting put the cumulative total at 583 in April and later at 625.
The numbers point to a public health system under strain. CDC says measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, meaning there had been no endemic transmission for at least 12 months in a region with a well-performing surveillance system. Health officials will review the country’s status in November 2026. The Pan American Health Organization said in November 2025 that the Americas lost verification as free from endemic measles transmission after Canada reestablished endemic transmission, adding regional pressure to the U.S. response.
The outbreak is being driven largely by weaker childhood vaccination coverage. National MMR coverage among kindergartners fell from 95.2% in the 2019-20 school year to 92.5% in 2024-25, leaving about 286,000 kindergartners at risk. CDC data also show coverage fell below 93% in 2023-24, and about 92% of U.S. cases this year have occurred in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.
CDC defines measles outbreaks as chains of transmission with three or more related cases, and it recorded 49 outbreaks in 2025, when 87% of cases were outbreak-associated. That year also brought three deaths, including one unvaccinated adult in New Mexico and two unvaccinated school-aged children in Texas. Before the vaccine, CDC says measles caused an estimated 48,000 hospitalizations and 400 to 500 deaths a year in the United States. With summer travel and large gatherings approaching, health officials say the only durable brake on further spread is higher vaccination coverage, especially because CDC says nearly 90% of imported measles cases are preventable by vaccination.
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