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• Posted July 22, 2026

Measles Cases Set 35-Year US Record With Months To Go In 2026

The United States has recorded more measles cases this year than in any year since 1991, with more than five months still left on the calendar.

The country had logged 2,295 cases as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University's U.S. measles tracker. 

That total edges past the 2,289 cases reported for all of last year and is the highest annual count since measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, The Washington Post reports.

The Hopkins’ figure runs ahead of the federal count. Its tracker pulls information from state and county health departments and other sources, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updates its tally once a week. 

As of July 16, the most recent tally available, the CDC was reporting 2,260 confirmed cases.

"The fact that we've reached this total this early in the year is really a reflection of those large outbreaks earlier in the year, particularly in South Carolina and Utah," Dr. William Moss, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The Post.

The national count will almost certainly climb as more cases are confirmed, Moss said. The resurgence should not be viewed solely through the lens of recent political debates over vaccines, he added.

The age breakdown suggests U.S. vulnerability has been building for years. About 20% of this year's cases have been in children under 5, according to the CDC. Half have been in 5- to 19-year-olds, and 30% in adults 20 and older.

"That tells us this has been years of undervaccination in some communities," Moss said. "This has been years in the making. It's not just the result of one outbreak."

Vaccination status points in the same direction. Some 93% of confirmed cases this year were in people who were unvaccinated or whose status was unknown, according to CDC data. Just 4% had received two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

South Carolina has reported the most cases at 670, followed by Utah with 518 and Texas with 182, according to the CDC. The agency has logged 34 new outbreaks in 2026.

About 6% of patients — 146 people — have been hospitalized. No measles deaths have been reported this year, compared with three in 2025.

The current record remains far below the more than 9,600 cases reported in 1991, before widespread vaccination drove measles to historic lows, The Post reports.

State health officials say the real number of infections is considerably higher than official counts reflect, and some fear their outbreaks may never fully end.

The Pan American Health Organization is expected to review the United States' measles elimination status, as well as Mexico's, in November.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more information about measles.

SOURCES: The Washington Post, July 21, 2026; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 17, 2026; Pan American Health Organization, March 2, 2026