US Loses Measles-Free Status 26 Years After Elimination Declared
The Pan American Health Organization has revoked US measles-elimination status after more than 12 months of uninterrupted spread. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin each reported another death, bringing this year's state-reported toll to 10, as a dispute over how to count them continues.
The United States has lost its measles-free status, 26 years after the disease was declared eliminated there, as two more measles-associated deaths were reported in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The total for the year now stands at 10 deaths linked to the disease, according to state health officials.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) revoked the status. Under its rules, a country loses elimination status once it has experienced uninterrupted transmission of measles for more than 12 months.
Measles was officially declared eliminated in the US in 2000.
Latest deaths
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported the death of an infant. The Pennsylvania Department of Health said its latest death was an unvaccinated patient who had tested positive for measles.
Pennsylvania has now logged seven measles-associated deaths and Wisconsin two. New York said on November 2 that a child had died, the state's first recorded measles death in more than 30 years.
Case counts and a dispute over deaths
More than 5,400 confirmed cases have been recorded in the US to date, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Johns Hopkins University International Vaccine Access Center tracker. That is more than double the 2,289 confirmed cases reported in 2025.
About 7,500 people in the US have been infected and 13 have died since last year. That period coincides with the tenure of US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has for years spread doubts, without scientific evidence, about the safety of measles vaccines.
The CDC's website lists six measles-related deaths, fewer than the state tallies. Kennedy asked CDC director Erica Schwartz not to count the deaths in the official tally, claiming there was no evidence they were measles-associated.
The disagreement has pitted Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro against Kennedy. Pennsylvania, the state hardest hit by the outbreak, reports a "measles-associated" death when a person with confirmed measles dies within 30 days of developing symptoms, unless an unrelated event caused it.
Epidemiologists have said that this approach has long been a standard used by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC. Infectious disease experts warn that the dispute puts the CDC at odds with a longstanding method of tracking measles deaths.
The CDC has said it is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to establish a standardized definition for measles deaths.
Vaccination coverage
Vaccination among US kindergartners has fallen from 95.2 percent in the 2019-2020 school year to 92.4 percent in 2025-2026. Local and state health departments have stepped up vaccination efforts.
Measles is preventable with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which offers approximately 97 percent protection after two doses. Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom recently lost their own measles-elimination status after a review by WHO experts.
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