Measles cases surge to record high since disease was declared eliminated in the US

Falling childhood vaccine coverage and a large, smoldering outbreak that was kindled in an undervaccinated pocket of West Texas have driven the United States to a troubling new milestone: There have been more measles cases in the US this year than any other since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago.

There have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases of measles reported in the US in 2025, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. Just halfway through the year, the case tally has already surpassed the last record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases.

Experts say this year's cases are likely to be severely undercounted because many are going unreported. Three people have died from measles this year – two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated – matching the total number of US measles deaths from the previous two and a half decades.

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, meaning there has not been continuous transmission for more than a year at a time. Reaching this status was "a historic public health achievement," according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, possible in large part because of vaccine development. The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine that is most commonly used first became widely available in the US in the 1970s.

Before this year, there have been an average of about 180 measles cases reported each year since the disease was declared eliminated, according to CDC data.

In 2019, large outbreaks in New York threatened elimination status; those outbreaks were concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County that had been targeted with anti-vaccine disinformation for years.

This year, the vast majority of measles cases have been in Texas, with more than 750 confirmed cases associated with one outbreak that started in late January. If cases associated with that outbreak continue to accumulate through January of next year, the US could lose its measles elimination status.

Most of those cases – more than 400 since the start of the year – have been in Gaines County, according to the state health department, where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level. In the 2024-25 school year, nearly 1 in 4 kindergartners in Gaines County did not have their required MMR vaccine, one of the worst rates in the state.

Dozens of cases in New Mexico and Oklahoma have also been linked to the West Texas outbreak, and cases reported in Kansas may also be connected.

Special vaccination clinics that have been stood up in response to the outbreak have led to additional coverage for thousands of people. Many of the affected counties have also introduced expanded vaccination guidance, allowing infants to get their first shot as early as 6 months old instead of waiting until 1 year. In New Mexico, nearly twice as many MMR vaccines have been administered this year than there were at this point last year, according to data from the state health department.

From : CNN