This year has been bad for measles cases, as 2026 has already surpassed all the cases from 2025.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted 2,318 cases so far this year. The Washington Post noted that there are still five months to go in the year.
Keep in mind that 2025 had 2,289 cases, which was the worst year for the illness in more than three decades, The Associated Press reported.
Most of the cases were in South Carolina, Utah and Arizona, but there were smaller clusters in other states, according to the AP. But according to CDC data, there were cases in 45 jurisdictions.
“The fact that we’ve reached this total this early in the year is really a reflection of those large outbreaks earlier in the year, particularly in South Carolina and Utah,” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health epidemiology professor William Moss told the Post. “It’s very frustrating. This is a reflection that we have been unable to stop measles virus transmission in this country.”
American Academy of Pediatrics president Dr. Andrew Racine told CNN, “This essentially is a public health failure, and it’s avoidable.”
Because of the number of cases, an international panel will meet later this year to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles-free status.
The U.S. had been declared measles-free after eliminating local spread of the illness in 2000 thanks to high vaccination rates. But since the number of people getting the vaccine has dropped to below the 95% threshold needed to prevent outbreaks, the country is in danger of losing the designation.
Officials said the government illness count may be incomplete because people may get sick but don’t get treatment, the AP explained.
The overall record dates to 1991, when the U.S. saw 9,600 cases, the Post reported.
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