This measles resurgence was foreseeable but not inevitable
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest data on measles represents a preventable tragedy in the United States. The CDC announced last week that there are already 2,318 confirmed measles cases in 2026, outpacing the case count for all of 2025 (2,289). Today’s cases are nearly double the worst annual measles case counts from the past three decades. Between 1993 and 2020, only once did the annual total of confirmed U.S. cases top 1,000.
Health officials should be prioritizing the protection of children through immunization.
This resurgence of measles in the U.S. reflects failures in leadership that have allowed vaccination coverage to decline — and, in some respects, even fostered this dangerous trend. Health officials should be prioritizing the protection of children through immunization.
With measles now a near-daily headline, more families are understandably asking questions about the disease and its vaccine. Here are some evidence-based facts everyone should know.
Measles is hypercontagious
One person with measles can infect nine to 10 people without immunity. But measles is often transmitted asymptomatically. A person can spread the virus up to four days before developing the telltale rash, and because the incubation period — the time between exposure and illness — ranges from seven to 21 days, identifying where and when someone was infected is often difficult.
Measles can kill
Three people died of measles in the U.S. last year; before then, a single measles-related death in the U.S. had not occurred since 2015; before that, since 2003. But death isn’t the only danger. There have been 151 hospitalizations from measles so far this year, according to the CDC, including 45 children under age 5 for conditions including low blood oxygen, sepsis and pneumonia. And long after the acute illness has resolved, measles can still present a threat. Infection can cause “immune amnesia,” temporarily erasing immune memory and increasing susceptibility to other infections. A child who appears to recover can years later develop subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or SSPE, a devastating, progressive inflammation of the brain caused by persistent measles infection. SSPE is almost always fatal.
Measles exacts a heavy toll on communities, even among those not directly infected
The major outbreak in South Carolina that began last year produced at least 997 confirmed cases. But the disruption extends far beyond those with measles. Thirty-three schools were affected, and 874 people were quarantined for exposure. For many families, quarantine translated into missed school, missed work, lost wages and last-minute childcare complexities. The burden of this disease extends beyond hospitalizations or deaths and into widespread social and economic disruption.
Responding to measles is costly
A 2025 Johns Hopkins study found that the cost of responding to measles in an outbreak — including direct medical costs and the public health response — was, on average, approximately $43,000 per case, with costs ranging from $7,000 to $243,000 per case. Because this assessment excluded productivity losses, caregiver time and long-term outcomes such as SSPE, it almost certainly underestimates the societal burden. At a time when hospital capacity is strained, healthcare resources are scarce and public health budgets are shrinking, measles represents a preventable drain on resources.
This measles resurgence was foreseeable but not inevitable
Before measles vaccines were first licensed for use in 1963, nearly every child in the U.S. contracted measles. Less than four decades later, in 2000, the U.S. declared measles eliminated, meaning the virus no longer continuously circulated in this country. Hundreds of millions of vaccine doses have been administered globally over the decades. Today, such vaccines are part of the routine childhood immunization program in virtually every country.
Sarah Despres was a counselor to the secretary of health and human services for public health and science from 2021 to 2025. She currently consults with nonprofits on immunization policy.
Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, was the 19th director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2021 to 2023. She is a professor at Harvard Medical School.
