The return of measles to the US and the outbreaks in Texas and beyond

By July 2025, the CDC had counted 1,288 cases for the year, the most since the disease was declared eliminated.^[15] Texas declared its outbreak over in August, after 762 cases, 99 hospitalizations and the deaths of two children.^[1] Canada, where a large outbreak had spread for more than a year, lost its measles elimination status in November, raising alarm among experts.^[16] The United States ended 2025 with more than 2,000 cases, the most in more than 30 years, as outbreaks in South Carolina and along the Arizona-Utah border threatened its own elimination status.^[2]

In January 2026, South Carolina's outbreak reached 789 cases, surpassing Texas's as the largest since elimination.^[17] In March, ICE confirmed an outbreak at Camp East Montana in El Paso, one of the largest immigration detention facilities in the country.^[18] By late July, the CDC had recorded 2,318 cases in 2026, more than in all of 2025 and the most since 1991.^[3]

In August, Pennsylvania reported two measles deaths in Lancaster County, both of unvaccinated people, including an infant: the first US measles deaths of 2026 and the state's first in 35 years.^[4] The CDC left them out of its weekly count while it reviewed the circumstances, after a public dispute between Kennedy and Gov. Josh Shapiro.^[19] Kennedy later acknowledged that measles had caused the infant's death, citing the county coroner, while accusing Shapiro of politicizing it.^[20] At the end of September, Pennsylvania reported its fifth measles-associated death of the year and 943 confirmed cases across 39 counties.^[21]

In October, Pennsylvania passed 1,000 cases, the largest state outbreak in more than three decades,^[22] and by mid-month it had 1,222 confirmed cases, 225 of them hospitalized and fewer than 1% fully vaccinated.^[23] The Franklin County coroner confirmed the state's sixth measles-associated death, a 39-year-old woman with several underlying conditions.^[5] In New York, where 108 cases had been reported in the year, Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a statewide disaster emergency that expanded who can give the MMR vaccine.^[24] Nationally, the CDC confirmed more than 4,000 cases, 95% of them among unvaccinated people.^[23] That month, the CDC confirmed a third measles-related death for the year, fewer than Pennsylvania had counted,^[25] and Pennsylvania health officials identified congenital measles for the first time in decades.^[26] By late October Pennsylvania had reported 1,360 cases across 44 counties.^[27]

In early November, a child in Lewis County died of complications from measles, the first known measles-associated death in New York State in more than three decades.^[8] The CDC confirmed 5,182 cases nationwide at the end of October, a level the country had not seen in 35 years,^[7] and Pennsylvania's count reached 1,505 by November 9, with 290 people hospitalized.^[28] After nearly two years of outbreaks and more than 7,000 cases, the United States was likely to lose its measles elimination status after a review by an international public health body, the Washington Examiner reported, and the CDC said it would change its response if that happened.^[9] On November 13, Pennsylvania reported its seventh measles death, an unvaccinated resident of Montour County.^[29]