US Loses Measles Elimination Status as Utah Outbreak Drives Record Case Counts

The United States has lost its status as a country that has eliminated measles, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal that cites unidentified people familiar with the matter. The report, relayed by Bloomberg, followed a review of the evidence by the Pan American Health Organization, the body that verifies elimination status in the Americas. PAHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately respond to requests for comment after normal business hours on Friday, so the loss has not been confirmed on the record by either.

The test PAHO applies is simple to state: has a single strain of measles virus circulated in a community for 12 months? Utah's outbreak met it. That outbreak began in June 2025, has kept growing, and has infected more than 700 people. Utah's public health experts say the true number is likely higher than what local health departments have recorded. The CDC says only 87.2% of Utah kindergartners received the MMR vaccine in the 2025-2026 school year.

The loss is, in the report's words, just a label, but it marks a national failure to control a highly contagious disease. It is also likely to bring travel warnings about the US and vaccine advisories from other countries. Canada lost its own status a year ago. To regain it, a country must show that continuous transmission has stopped and that its disease-tracking systems have been strengthened.

The US had declared measles eliminated in 2000, after a public communications push. Vaccination rates later declined as the pandemic deepened distrust of federal health guidance, which gave the virus room to return. The CDC has now confirmed 5,412 cases in 2026, more than double last year's total and the highest count since 1991.

Pennsylvania has had the country's largest outbreak this year, with more than 1,500 cases since it began in April. On Friday the state reported its seventh measles-related death. Nine people in the US have died of measles so far this year, three times the 2025 toll, though the CDC has recognized only six of those deaths after a dispute with Pennsylvania over how they were classified.

The response is unfolding at an agency under strain. Under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC has been shaken by staff departures and leadership changes. About a third of its career staff were forced out or left voluntarily after cuts tied to Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The agency has also been stretched by other outbreaks, including Ebola and cyclosporiasis. In August, Erica Schwartz became its first permanent director in almost a year.

Kennedy previously led an anti-vaccine organization and has said the measles, mumps and rubella shot should be a "personal choice." Together with President Donald Trump, he has reshaped US vaccination policy. Earlier this year Trump signed an executive order directing HHS to produce a report on splitting the MMR vaccine into separate components. That could make it more time-consuming for Americans to be protected against all three diseases, and it would force complicated, expensive retooling at manufacturers Merck & Co. and GSK Plc.

The CDC says the MMR vaccine is 97% effective against disease after two doses. Measles infects up to 90% of unvaccinated people who are exposed. It brings flu-like symptoms and a red rash across the body, and can lead to encephalitis, pneumonia and death. What to watch next: official confirmation from PAHO or the CDC, any foreign travel advisories, and the HHS report on splitting the vaccine.