US Measles Cases Hit a New Record High in 2026 as Vaccination Rates Continue to Steadily Decline, CDC Says

The United States has recorded more measles cases in 2026 than in any year since the disease was declared eliminated from the country in 2000, a milestone public health experts warn could signal a lasting shift toward a country where the once-vanquished virus regularly sickens thousands of people each year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that 2,318 confirmed measles cases have been reported so far this year, surpassing last year's record of more than 2,200 cases, which included two deaths among unvaccinated children. Taken together, more measles cases have now been reported in the United States over the past two years than during the entire quarter-century stretch from 2000 through 2024 combined.

Where the cases are coming from

Much of this year's case total traces back to a large outbreak that began in South Carolina last October within a close-knit evangelical Slavic community, which quickly grew into the largest single measles outbreak in the country since 2000. That outbreak ultimately sickened nearly 1,000 people before state health officials declared it over in April.

The virus has continued spreading elsewhere even after that outbreak ended. Utah is currently battling an outbreak that began along its border with Arizona last summer and has since grown to more than 700 cases spread across every jurisdiction in the state. Virginia health officials have reported more than 170 cases tied to an outbreak that started in mid-May, while Pennsylvania is dealing with a separate outbreak that has sickened more than 100 people this year. In total, the CDC has tracked 35 distinct measles outbreaks across the country in 2026, with the vast majority of cases occurring among people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.

A trend years in the making

Public health experts say this year's record numbers reflect a longer-term erosion in vaccination coverage rather than a sudden, isolated event. Nationally, the measles vaccination rate declined during the Covid-19 pandemic and has yet to recover to the roughly 95% threshold generally considered necessary to prevent sustained community spread of the virus. The latest national data shows approximately 93% of kindergartners have received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, but that figure masks significant local variation, with some communities approaching near-universal vaccination while others fall below 80%.

Because measles ranks among the most contagious viruses known, experts say it is uniquely effective at exploiting exactly those kinds of vaccination gaps. "It's going to find people who aren't immune," said Dr. David Kimberlin, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "It's like a heat-seeking missile."

Children bearing the brunt

Children have accounted for more than 70% of this year's confirmed measles cases. More than 80 children and adolescents have required hospitalization for complications including pneumonia, which leaves patients struggling to breathe, and brain swelling, which can result in lasting effects such as blindness, deafness or intellectual disabilities. No specific treatment currently exists for measles itself, though researchers continue working to develop one. While many affected children were unvaccinated by parental choice, local health departments have also documented cases among infants too young to receive the vaccine and among people with medical conditions that make them ineligible for it.

The economic toll

Beyond the direct health impact, the outbreaks have carried a significant financial cost. State and local public health departments have had to divert substantial resources toward tracing exposures, running vaccination campaigns and processing test results. Researchers have estimated that each individual measles case cost the United States more than $100,000 in 2025 alone, once accounting for health care spending and lost workdays for sick individuals and their caregivers.

Political context around the federal response

The resurgence has unfolded under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department several experts say has not pursued a coordinated national campaign to raise vaccination rates. Kennedy has halted funding for research into vaccine hesitancy, downplayed the risks associated with measles, and pushed efforts to examine claims that vaccines are unsafe, actions that some public health researchers argue have compounded the ongoing spread.

Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, said the pattern is likely to persist without a meaningful shift in vaccination policy. "This is just going to keep happening," Nuzzo said. "It's going to mean living in a perpetual state of vulnerability and risk until we get vaccination levels up."

Dr. Jonathan Temte, a former chairman of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, pointed specifically to the absence of a visible federal public awareness campaign. "We have seen virtually no national messaging. We've seen no ad campaigns," Temte said, adding, "I think that really tells us something about their priorities."

The administration's response

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, Courtney Spencer, said the department has mounted an "aggressive outbreak response," pointing to $8.5 million in funding provided to states to help contain outbreaks along with technical assistance the CDC has offered to affected areas. The department has also stated that "M.M.R. vaccination remains the best protection against measles," according to Spencer.

A global concern

The United States is not alone in facing a measles resurgence this year. Canada, which lost its own measles elimination status last year, has reported more than 1,000 cases in 2026. Health officials in Bangladesh have confirmed more than 8,000 infections since March.

An international panel of experts is scheduled to meet in November to determine whether the United States should formally lose its measles elimination status, a designation the country has held since 2000 and long regarded as one of its signature public health achievements. Losing that status would mark a significant symbolic and practical setback, one that public health officials say would be difficult to reverse without a substantial, coordinated push to raise vaccination coverage back above the threshold needed to prevent the virus from continuing to spread through underimmunized communities nationwide.