US measles cases hit highest level since 1991, raising fears of loss of elimination status

The CDC reports a surge of 94 new measles infections across the US, indicating a potential return to endemic levels and jeopardising the country’s measles elimination status for the first time in over two decades.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said it has added 94 measles infections to the US tally, pushing the year’s total to 2,465, with most of the latest cases reported in Pennsylvania. The new figures deepen concern that the country is edging towards losing measles elimination status, a designation it has held since 2000, after two straight years in which case counts topped 2,200. The total for 2026 is already the highest recorded since 1991.

According to the CDC, a federal advisory committee that helps assess elimination status will review the data this month before forwarding its findings to the Pan American Health Organisation’s Regional Verification Commission. PAHO, the regional arm of the World Health Organisation, is due to announce in November whether the United States has lost that status. Noel Brewster, who chairs the CDC committee, told Stat that the numbers amount to “a runaway train” and said one of the most worrying outbreaks is in Utah, where transmission appears to have continued for more than 12 months, the key threshold used to judge loss of elimination.

The latest surge fits a wider pattern of renewed measles spread in the United States and abroad. CDC data published last year showed cases rising sharply after 2020, with outbreaks concentrated in communities with low vaccination coverage. A separate CDC release in November said global measles cases reached an estimated 10.3 million in 2023, up 20% from 2022, and warned that 95% vaccination coverage is needed to prevent outbreaks. Health experts say the disease remains one of the most contagious known human viruses and that falling immunisation rates leave the door open to sustained transmission.