The United States has lost its measles-free status after 26 years, an expert commission of the Pan American Health Organization concluded, citing uninterrupted domestic transmission of the virus for more than 12 months.
The decision, reported by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post on Saturday, ends the elimination status the country achieved in 2000. An official announcement is expected on Tuesday. The commission met for three days in Washington and determined that the same measles virus strain has circulated continuously within the United States for at least 12 months. Measles-free status does not mean zero infections, but rather that no sustained chains of domestic transmission exist.
The ruling follows the worst year for measles in 35 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 5,412 cases in 2026 as of November 12, more than double the 2,289 recorded in all of 2025. The last time annual cases were higher was in 1991, when 9,643 infections were reported. Five deaths were reported in November across Pennsylvania, New York and Wisconsin, while Pennsylvania alone has recorded more than 1,500 cases and six deaths.
Experts attribute the outbreaks to declining vaccination rates. Among kindergarten children, coverage for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine dropped from 95.2 percent to 92.4 percent over six years, according to CDC data. The World Health Organization states that at least 95 percent of the population must receive two doses to prevent sustained transmission. Ninety-six percent of those infected this year were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status.
Large outbreaks have spread since early 2025 in West Texas, along the Utah-Arizona border and in South Carolina. The virus can suppress the immune system, leaving survivors more susceptible to other infections. About one in five unvaccinated people in the United States who contract measles requires hospitalization, according to the CDC.
To regain elimination status, the United States must interrupt sustained transmission for at least 12 months and demonstrate this to health authorities. Canada and the United Kingdom have also lost their measles elimination status over the past year.
Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the measles resurgence coincided with an administration that damaged the health care system. Besser, a former acting director of the CDC, added that the administration spread false claims about vaccines. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has for years questioned vaccine safety without scientific evidence. The Infectious Diseases Society of America said prior to the decision that "it is unthinkable that people in the United States should be dying from measles in 2026."
