U.S. Measles Status Faces Review After Nearly 7,500 Cases
Global health experts are reviewing whether the United States has lost its measles-free status, an achievement it has held since 2000. The decision follows nearly 7,500 reported cases and 11 deaths since President Donald Trump took office for a second time, while officials say current outbreak measures would continue.
Global health experts are reviewing whether the United States has lost its measles-free status after nearly 7,500 reported cases since President Donald Trump took office for a second time, a decision that could end a public health achievement held since 2000.
The history measles cases meeting is taking place in Washington, where the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) annual gathering continues through November 13. The organization’s experts are assessing whether measles transmission in the U.S. continued without interruption for 12 months or longer.
PAHO asked all 35 member states in the Americas to submit measles status reports. A panel of outside experts will make recommendations in closed-door deliberations, and PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa will make the final decision.
The determination is expected to be made public early next week. Mexico and Bolivia are also on the watch list because of prolonged outbreaks, a PAHO spokesperson said.
State and federal health officials have reported nearly 7,500 U.S. measles cases and 11 deaths since Trump began his second term in early 2025. Infections have more than doubled this year compared with 2025.
Noel Brewer, a public health professor at the University of North Carolina and chair of an independent U.S. advisory panel on measles, said the status decision would not change the scale of the problem. “Whether or not the US loses its measles elimination status, we have a huge problem with measles,” he said.
Brewer presented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s measles status report and his group’s assessment to PAHO experts on Tuesday. He did not provide details.
The experts will weigh epidemiological and laboratory evidence. Brewer said the Arizona-Utah outbreak, which began in June 2025 and is continuing, likely meets the criterion of uninterrupted transmission.
Dr. Erica Schwartz, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency works with states to contain outbreaks, focusing on communities where immunization rates have been lower for decades.
If the country loses its status, Schwartz said, “we’re going to be doing the same exact thing that we’ve been doing today.” She added that this includes “reemphasizing that the number one way to prevent measles is the MMR (combined measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said national vaccination rates had declined before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health secretary. Public health experts have said his actions to reduce childhood immunizations increased vaccine hesitancy and contributed to the country’s highest infection rate in more than three decades.
Helen Bedford, a professor of children’s health at University College London who has advised the U.K. government on vaccination, said the U.S. had been viewed as a model for vaccination programs. “But measles is definitely back in the United States,” she said. “And it will take a lot of work to reverse that. And it is tragic, because it’s children who are going to suffer at the end of the day.”
Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom recently lost measles-elimination status after reviews by World Health Organization experts. The U.S. left the WHO but remains a member of PAHO, its regional organization for the Americas.
