For the first time since 1992, the U.S. recorded more than 2,000 measles infections in a single year last year, U.S. government data shows.
A total of 2,144 confirmed measles cases were reported in the United States in 2025, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday.
This is a 652 per cent increase from 2024, in which the U.S. saw 285 confirmed cases of measles.
Among these, 2,119 measles cases were reported by 45 jurisdictions across the U.S., while 25 were reported among international visitors to the U.S. Three people died of measles in the U.S. last year, CDC data shows.
In the first six days of 2026, the U.S. recorded three confirmed measles cases.
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The vast majority of the measles infections in 2025 – 93 per cent – were among unvaccinated individuals and more than one in four (43 per cent) of infected people were between the ages of five and 19. Around one in four (26 per cent) were under the age of five.
Roughly 11 per cent of patients infected with measles – 240 out of 2144 – were admitted to hospital. Of these, 105 were children under the age of five.
There were 49 outbreaks reported in 2025, and 88 per cent of confirmed cases (1,884 of 2,144) are outbreak-associated.
In November 2025, the Pan American Health Organization revoked the measles-free status Canada has had since 1998 because an outbreak of the virus across several provinces has lasted for more than a year.
Canada can re-establish its measles elimination status once transmission of the measles strain associated with the current outbreak is interrupted for at least 12 months, the Public Health Agency of Canada said at the time.
By the end of January, the U.S. could also lose its status. Measles was officially eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, meaning “there is no measles spreading within the country and new cases are only found when someone contracts measles abroad and returns to the country,” the CDC said.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
