US loses measles-free status amid continued spread

The Pan American Health Organization (Paho) has revoked the US’ measles-elimination status after 26 years, because the country did not halt continuous transmission of the highly contagious virus for more than a year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The international health body did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on the report, which cited people familiar with the matter.

The reported decision by the Americas branch of the World Health Organization (WHO) comes as the US battles the highest number of measles cases it has seen in more than three decades.

Some 7,500 people in the US have been infected with measles and 13 have died since 2025. That period coincides with falling immunization rates and rising vaccine hesitancy under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has for years spread doubts, without scientific evidence, about the safety of measles vaccines.

As part of its evaluation, Paho reviewed epidemiological and laboratory evidence to determine ⁠whether the same strain of measles had been circulating in the US uninterrupted for 12 months or longer, a sign of local transmission rather than imported cases.

As of Thursday, 5,182 confirmed cases of measles had been reported in 2026 to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 45 states, New York City and the District of Columbia, surpassing last year’s total of 2,289, making it one of the country’s worst measles resurgences in decades.

The US achieved its measles-elimination status in 2000. A country can halt transmission when 95% of its population is vaccinated, creating so-called herd immunity that also protects those unable to receive the vaccine.

Two doses of the measles vaccine — by far the best way to prevent infection and transmission — provide 97% protection against the virus, which can cause blindness, deafness, brain damage or death.