Measles cases in the United States have already exceeded last year’s total, making 2026 the nation’s worst year for the disease since measles was declared eliminated in 2000, according to a federal report released Friday
As of July 23, the U.S. had recorded 2,318 confirmed measles cases, surpassing the 2,289 cases reported during all of 2025
Federal data show that 93% of cases in both 2025 and 2026 occurred among unvaccinated people, most of them younger than 20
Although more people have contracted measles this year, the number of severe cases has declined. There have been 151 hospitalizations in 2026, compared with 243 during 2025. No measles-related deaths have been reported this year, while three deaths occurred in 2025
The largest surge in new infections occurred in mid-January, when nearly 300 new cases were reported in a single week
South Carolina currently has the nation’s highest number of cases with 670, followed by Utah with 522. Other states with significant outbreaks include Texas with 188 cases, Virginia with 176 and Pennsylvania with 134
With the exception of Virginia, each of those states had childhood vaccination rates below 95% during the 2024-25 school year, the level public health officials generally consider necessary to prevent widespread outbreaks through community immunity
Although Virginia’s statewide childhood vaccination rate was 95.6%, the outbreak has been concentrated in two rural counties west of Richmond where vaccination rates are below 75%
The last time the United States experienced more measles cases than in 2025 and 2026 was during the early 1990s, when vaccination efforts were still expanding nationwide. There were 9,643 reported cases in 1991 and nearly 28,000 in 1990
Today, most states have childhood vaccination rates below the 95% threshold that public health experts say helps protect people who cannot be vaccinated, including infants who are too young to receive the vaccine
Oklahoma, for example, reported a childhood vaccination rate of 88.7%. The state recorded 20 measles cases in 2025 but has reported only one case so far this year after a foundation deployed a mobile health clinic to provide vaccinations to thousands of children
Delaware also declared a new outbreak this week after reporting its first measles cases in a decade. The state’s total climbed to five cases within a matter of days despite a childhood vaccination rate of 94.1%
“High vaccination coverage has protected even the unvaccinated and undervaccinated because of herd protection, keeping measles at bay for the past few decades,” said Dr. William Moss, director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University
“But in communities with pockets of susceptible individuals across a broad age range, measles has been able to take hold, infecting those who are susceptible and spreading rapidly,” he said
The Pan American Health Organization is expected to review the United States’ measles status in November and consider whether to revoke the country’s measles elimination designation, a status Canada lost last year
This story was originally part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news organization that includes the Missouri Independent
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