The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed six measles-related deaths in the country this year, according to the agency's website on Thursday, as the United States grapples with its worst resurgence of the virus in decades. The updated figure doubles the death toll recorded in 2025.
Measles cases in the US have climbed above 5,000 for the first time since 1991. According to CDC surveillance data updated on 6 November, federal health authorities had recorded 5,182 confirmed measles cases across 47 jurisdictions as of 5 November, more than double the 2,289 cases documented throughout 2025. Forty-three distinct outbreaks have originated in 2026 alone, and 96 per cent of all reported infections are linked to ongoing outbreaks.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, meaning the virus was no longer spreading continuously within the country. That status is now under review: between 10 and 13 November, an independent regional verification commission convened by the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization's regional office for the Americas, met to evaluate whether the United States and several neighbouring nations still meet the elimination criteria. It is expected to decide in the coming days.
Pennsylvania has been the hardest-hit state in the outbreak. As of 4 November, the state had confirmed six measles-associated deaths this year. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has reported an infant's death, while New York reported its first known measles-associated death in more than 30 years, in early November.
The CDC's official tally of six deaths sits lower than the combined count of eight reported by individual state health departments. The discrepancy arose after the CDC, under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., switched from state health departments' figures to mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics to track measles deaths. Because death certificate verification and clinical classification reviews occur at different speeds across jurisdictions, federal figures often lag behind state announcements and remain subject to upward revision. The CDC did not disclose the specific states where the six deaths it confirmed occurred.
The escalating outbreak highlights widening gaps in routine childhood immunisation, which health officials say is the main driver of the spread. Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known, and it spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is highly effective, and two doses provide strong, long-lasting protection.
Surveillance counts capture only laboratory-confirmed cases reported to health authorities, so mild or untested infections are likely to push the true national burden higher. The 2026 case and mortality totals remain provisional as state investigations continue, and outbreak dynamics reflect not only vaccine hesitancy but also local healthcare access and international travel patterns.
The outbreak has unfolded against a backdrop of debate about vaccination policy in the United States. Public health officials have repeatedly stressed that the vaccine is safe and effective, and that high coverage is the only way to prevent the virus from spreading in schools and communities.
For families, the figures are a reminder that a disease many Americans had come to regard as a problem of the past is once again killing children and adults. The six deaths confirmed by the CDC, and the eight reported by the states, are the highest tolls the country has seen from measles in many years.
What happens next depends in part on the Pan American Health Organization's decision on the US elimination status, and in part on whether vaccination coverage can be raised quickly enough to stop the outbreaks. Until the virus stops circulating, health officials warn, more cases — and more deaths — are likely.
