US measles cases more than double 2025 total before PAHO review

On October 30, 2026, the CDC said 4,852 people in the U.S. had tested positive for measles up to October 29, a total more than double the 2,289 cases counted in all of 2025, with two months still left in the year. PAHO delayed its U.S. elimination review from April to November 2026, and health leaders said a decision is nearly certain, Tech Times reported.

Tech Times quoted Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security as saying, "The U.S. has effectively lost elimination status. The November PAHO review will make this formal."

PAHO defines measles elimination as no local spread for a full 12 months, along with high vaccination coverage, a working surveillance system, and rapid response capacity. The United States was declared eliminated in 2000 and re-verified in 2012. Canada lost elimination status in November 2025. Whole-genome sequencing of the D8-9171 measles genotype, which analyzes 16,000 base pairs and had never been used in a PAHO elimination review, points to continuous spread within the U.S. since at least January 2025, according to researchers cited by Tech Times.

Pennsylvania has documented 1,398 confirmed cases, 265 hospitalizations, and five measles-associated deaths as of October 28, with cases reported in 43 of the state's 67 counties. The CDC's national tally listed three measles deaths as of October 29, a figure the agency marked "subject to change". Pennsylvania state health officials and the CDC use different attribution criteria for deaths. The first four reported deaths in Pennsylvania were in unvaccinated people: two infants younger than the age for the MMR shot, a 40-year-old woman, and an 18-year-old.

National MMR coverage among kindergartners fell from 95 percent in the 2017-2018 school year to 92.4 percent in 2025-2026, while nonmedical exemption rates reached a record 4.2 percent and an estimated 280,000 kindergartners entered school without documented completion of the MMR series, according to CDC data reported by Tech Times. Because measles requires about 92 to 95 percent immunity to stop spread, the 92.4 percent national figure leaves the U.S. at the lower edge of control. About 93 percent of 2026 confirmed cases were in unvaccinated or unknown-status individuals; roughly 20 percent were in children under five, 50 percent in those aged five to 19, and 30 percent in adults 20 and older.

In early October 2026, New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency after state cases exceeded 108, saying, "No one should get seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease." In Todd County, Minnesota, public health officials are confronting vaccination coverage gaps, distrust of government, and limited familiarity with measles, MinneapoliMedia reported on Saturday, citing MPR News. MinneapoliMedia advised anyone who may have been exposed or feels ill to call their doctor before going to a clinic or hospital so staff can protect other patients.

A loss of elimination status would reclassify measles as endemic in the United States, change outbreak response funding and travel advisories, and update international surveillance classifications, Tech Times reported. Losing the status would not by itself force domestic policy changes; Congress, the CDC, and state health departments control those decisions. The CDC death count was marked subject to change, and because Pennsylvania uses different attribution criteria, the state and national death counts may not be directly comparable.