Falling childhood vaccine coverage and a large, smoldering outbreak that was kindled in an undervaccinated pocket of West Texas have driven the United States to a troubling new milestone: There have been more measles cases in the US this year than any other since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago.<\/p>\n
There have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases of measles reported in the US in 2025, according to data<\/a> from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. Just halfway through the year, the case tally has already surpassed the last record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases.<\/p>\n Experts say this year\u2019s cases are likely to be severely undercounted because many are going unreported. Three people have died from measles this year \u2013 two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated \u2013 matching the total number of US measles deaths from the previous two and a half decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Falling childhood vaccine coverage and a large, smoldering outbreak that was kindled in an undervaccinated pocket of West Texas have driven the United States to a troubling new milestone: There have been more measles cases in the US this year than any other since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago.<\/p>\n There have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases of measles reported in the US in 2025, according to data<\/a> from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. Just halfway through the year, the case tally has already surpassed the last record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases.<\/p>\n Experts say this year\u2019s cases are likely to be severely undercounted because many are going unreported. Three people have died from measles this year \u2013 two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated \u2013 matching the total number of US measles deaths from the previous two and a half decades.<\/p>\n