The 2026 Measles Outbreak Is Growing. Here’s How to Stay Safe

Measles cases hit a 33-year high in the US last year, and 2026 is shaping up to be even worse. We’ve already surpassed the total number of cases for all of 2025 — and it’s only July. In fact, more measles cases have been reported in the US in the last two years than in all the years from 2000 to 2024, combined.

Multiple outbreaks are driving the spread, with a total of 2,371 cases currently confirmed by the CDC. Spartanberg, South Carolina, has reported the most cases so far this year, tied to an outbreak that started in 2025 and was declared over in April. Utah, Virginia, Texas, and Pennsylvania are all still struggling with active outbreaks.

It’s no mystery why measles is surging: MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccination rates have plunged since the COVID-19 pandemic. “Approximately 9% of the U.S. population is unvaccinated from MMR, and measles is a highly contagious virus,” explains immunologist Dr. Frederic Bertley, president of Ohio’s Center of Science and Industry, who played a key role in that state’s COVID vaccine response. To achieve herd immunity, we need rates to be around 94 to 95%. When the number drops to where it is now, Bertley says, “the measles pathogen will ‘find’ these exposed and unprotected individuals and spread.”

Of course, the heartbreaking part is that the vast majority — about 90 percent of cases nationwide — are among young people, 19 years old and younger, Bertley says. Among those, 20 percent are in kids under 5 years old. “First and foremost, this is horrible to have morbidity and occasional mortality in young populations who (for the majority of the cases) did not have a say in their vaccination status,” he says. “Second, the impact on social and financial impact on healthcare and additional strain on our medical system could have been avoided.” Outbreaks can also lead to school closures, quarantine measures, and other disruptions that affect the wider community, vaccinated or not.

For Bertley, the huge case counts have been disheartening. “The U.S. has been a leader in vaccine research and development over the past two centuries,” he says. In 2000, the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO) declared measles officially eliminated in the US, thanks to the MMR vaccine. The US may lose that elimination status this year.

It’s clear that the anti-vax rhetoric popularized by the pandemic has taken its toll, spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy, the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has downplayed the risks of measles and passed along misleading information, like the myth that the MMR vaccine “wanes” in effectiveness every year (there’s no evidence of this — and outbreaks would be much worse if it did).

Measles is highly contagious, with symptoms that include red eyes, a cough, runny nose, a high fever and a red rash that spreads all over the body. It’s especially dangerous for unvaccinated people, 1 in 5 of whom will be hospitalized if they contract measles, per the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

The MMR vaccine remains the best way to protect yourself and your family from measles, especially as schools get ready to start up again this month. “Speak to your certified primary care physician or pediatrician, ask them all the questions you wish regarding vaccination safety, protocols and efficacy rates, and then vaccinate your children for MMR,” says Dr. Bertley. “Getting sick is no fun, and an otherwise healthy child should not go through the experience of being very ill because of a conscious decision made by their parent or adult guardian.”