Measles cases reach highest point since the disease was eliminated in U.S. in 2000

Measles cases in the United States are the highest they’ve been since the country eliminated the disease in 2000.
Measles cases in the United States are the highest they’ve been since the country eliminated the disease in 2000. The U.S. has reported 1,277 cases since the start of the year, according to NBC News’ tally of state health department data.
Earlier this year, the U.S. also recorded its first measles deaths in a decade: those of two children in Texas and an adult in New Mexico. All were unvaccinated.
For the past 25 years, measles has been considered eliminated in the U.S. because it has not continuously spread over a yearlong period.
There are still periodic outbreaks, however, including one that took off in in a Mennonite community in West Texas earlier this year. Vaccination rates in Gaines County, the center of the outbreak, are particularly low: As of the 2023-24 school year, 82% of kindergarteners in the county had received two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) vaccine, far below the 95% rate needed to curb spread.
Dr. David Sugerman, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee in April that measles would have to keep spreading through January 20 of next year for the U.S. to lose its elimination status.
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