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(NEXSTAR) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly half of the states in the U.S. are grappling with measles outbreaks, leading to more than 900 confirmed cases in 2026.
By mid-February, five new outbreaks had already been recorded, pushing the number of confirmed cases to 910 as of February 12. In the previous year, 2025, the CDC documented a total of 2,276 confirmed cases.
These escalating outbreaks have put the U.S. on the verge of losing its measles elimination status. This concern led a prominent U.S. health official to publicly address the issue, despite conflicting statements from his superior, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has previously questioned the effectiveness of vaccines.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urged the public, “Take the vaccine, please.”
Dr. Oz’s stance on the importance of the measles vaccine was unambiguous.
“Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But measles is one you should get your vaccine [for].”
The 24 states that reported cases were Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The country’s measles elimination status hinges on whether or not a single measles chain has spread uninterrupted within the U.S. for at least 12 months.
In 2000, measles were officially eliminated in the U.S. Because it wasn’t actively spreading, new cases only occurred when someone contracted the virus abroad and returned home, according to the CDC.
What makes measles dangerous?
There is little room for error in trying to stop measles. The virus is one of the most contagious, infecting 9 out of every 10 unvaccinated people exposed.
A person with measles who coughs or sneezes in a room, and then leaves that room, can still infect another person who enters that room up to two hours later, the CDC says.
Community-level protection takes a 95% vaccination rate.
The massive outbreak in Texas in 2025, for example, where the estimated vaccination rate is 93.2%, began with one patient who was suffering from a telltale rash on Jan. 20, 2025, according to state health department data.
From there, the outbreak exploded. Officially, 762 people fell ill, most of them in rural Gaines County, and two children died. Many more got sick and were never diagnosed: 182 potential measles cases among children in Gaines County went unconfirmed in March 2025 alone, state health officials said, a possible undercount of 44% in that county.
Measles, which often arrives with a high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a rash, can be especially dangerous in children under the age of 5, who may develop pneumonia and encephalitis.
The CDC says the best way to protect yourself against measles is to take two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.