The United States has recorded 2,318 measles cases in the first seven months of 2026, surpassing last year's total to reach the highest annual count in 35 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. The figure exceeds the 2025 total of 2,289 cases and represents the worst outbreak since the major resurgence of the highly contagious disease between 1989 and 1991, when more than 55,000 infections and 123 deaths were recorded.
Cases were confirmed in 45 states and the District of Columbia, with 93% associated with one of 35 new outbreaks reported in 2026. The surge comes amid a decades-long decline in childhood vaccination rates, with public health experts warning that declining immunization coverage is leaving children vulnerable to a disease that was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
"We have joined the rank of countries where vaccination is not reaching the levels needed to protect all of our children against some of the most contagious diseases," said Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Last year's outbreak already resulted in the first measles deaths in the U.S. in more than a decade, including two young girls.
Public health officials attribute the worsening crisis to eroding vaccination rates, weakened local public health infrastructure, and persistent vaccine misinformation. Dr. Adam Ratner, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, said, "Last year and this year would not be as bad if we had strong, well-funded local public health departments and a CDC that was well-staffed and ready to respond to outbreaks."