(CNN) As childhood vaccination rates continue to decline, recent measles outbreaks in the US are increasing case counts and alarming public health experts.
Following a sharp rise in cases in 2024 and the first recorded deaths in the US since 2015, there is cause for alarm this year. As fresh national data is gathered and made available by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from state health departments, CNN keeps an eye on these instances and updates this page every week.
The increase in national cases so far in 2025 is mostly attributable to a big outbreak in West Texas.
A very contagious airborne illness is measles. It can result in fatalities or major health issues, particularly in young, unvaccinated children. People under the age of 20 are involved in the majority of cases.
Fever, coughing, runny nose, watery eyes, and a red spot rash are examples of general symptoms. According to the CDC, around 1 in 5 unvaccinated individuals who contract measles will require hospitalization.
One child out of every twenty will get pneumonia, and others may get encephalitis, a potentially fatal brain enlargement. When youngsters contract measles, up to three out of every 1,000 may pass away from respiratory and neurological problems.
State health agencies’ statistics are more recent than the CDC’s national data. This is the most recent nationwide overview of the states that have reported cases thus far.
Because of a very successful vaccine, measles can be avoided. The measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccine should be administered to children in two doses, according to experts: once between the ages of 12 and 15 months and again between the ages of 4 and 6. The effectiveness of one dose in preventing measles infection is approximately 93%, whereas two doses are approximately 97% effective.
According to Dr. Michael Mina, chief scientific officer of the telemedicine company eMed and an authority on the epidemiology, immunology, and transmission of infectious diseases, the present outbreak is unquestionably being driven and initiated by unvaccinated individuals.
According to the CDC, the rise in measles cases in 2019 can be linked to both declining vaccination rates and increased travel, which can lead to unprotected individuals catching measles overseas and bringing it back to the US.
Here is a comparison of this year’s instances to those from previous years.
In the United States, measles was eradicated in 2000. Although imported cases are to be expected, outbreaks are uncommon and the risk is kept low when vaccination rates are high. Measles elimination in the United States was threatened by outbreaks in 2019, especially two among underimmunized Orthodox Jewish communities in New York.
The CDC warns that the United States may lose its measles eradication status if an outbreak lasts for a year or longer.
A high rate of vaccine coverage is essential to reducing the spread of measles since it is extremely contagious. Vaccination coverage among kindergarteners has fallen below the 95% objective established by the US in recent years.
According to the CDC, the percentage of kindergarteners who completed the MMR vaccine series fell from 95.2% in the 2019–2020 school year to 92.7% in the 2023–2024 school year, putting over 280,000 at risk.
