The US has officially surpassed last year’s record number of measles infections, marking the highest case count since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.
New figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Friday show the country has recorded 2,318 measles cases in 2026, overtaking the 2,289 cases reported during all of 2025 – with five months still remaining in the year. The country crossed the 2,000-case threshold last month before climbing even higher in July.
The latest milestone makes 2026 the worst year for measles in the US since 1991. Large outbreaks in South Carolina, Utah and Arizona have infected hundreds of people, while additional clusters have emerged in several other states.
The growing outbreak makes it increasingly likely that the US could be entering a period in which measles once again becomes a regularly circulating disease, capable of sickening thousands of people each year.
International health officials are scheduled to meet in November to decide whether the US and Mexico should lose their measles-free status. The US achieved elimination of local measles transmission in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, but coverage has declined in recent years, falling below the 95% level considered necessary to prevent outbreaks.
Even as reported cases continue to rise, the true scope of the outbreak may never be fully known. Public health officials and disease researchers have long said official totals are incomplete because some infected people never seek medical care.
Experts say reversing the current trend would require a nationwide effort to increase vaccination rates, but such an undertaking appears unlikely under the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has a long history of downplaying the importance of immunizations and grossly overstating their risks.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, which has sharply criticized the Trump administration’s approach to vaccines, described the new record as “an avoidable crisis that disproportionally hurts children”.
“These thousands of cases represent real people in communities across the country, including babies hospitalized with pneumonia, students who have missed weeks of school, and parents forced to miss work to stay home and care for sick children,” the statement said. “We should not accept this as our new normal. Unless we reverse this trend, America’s children will continue to pay the price.”
The measles surge comes as the US continues to face multiple public health threats, including hantavirus, screwworm, Ebola, cyclosporiasis, whooping cough and bird flu, highlighting growing concerns about the nation’s ability to prevent, detect and contain infectious disease outbreaks, especially as the Trump administration has cut staffing and funding to several preventive and response programs.
Former top CDC officials say the rapid dismantling of the US public health system at every level has left the country in a weaker position than it was before the Covid pandemic.
