Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – January 31, 2026 – Measles
“When I read the 1998 study falsely claiming there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, I was shocked. Shocked by how bad the paper was, shocked that it was published in a high-status journal and shocked that journalists reported it so uncritically. And back then, I didn’t even know the study was fraudulent.
Nearly three decades later, the consequences of those bad decisions by doctors and journalists are still reverberating around the world. Due to low vaccination rates driven at least in part by the anti-vax movement, fuelled by that fraudulent paper, six countries have lost their measles-free status, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), including the UK (for the second time), Spain and Austria. Meanwhile, the US is battling its worst outbreak in many decades, and could have potentially lost its own measles-free status soon, had it not withdrawn from the WHO.” (1)
“The South Carolina Department of Public Health announced Jan. 30 that the state’s measles outbreak now has 847 cases. The agency said most cases are close contacts of known cases, but the number of public exposure sites indicate that the disease is circulating through community spread, increasing the risk of exposure and infection for individuals who are not immune due to vaccination or natural infection. The state’s outbreak began in October. Nationally, 588 cases have been reported since Jan. 1 across 17 jurisdictions, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those cases, 94% are outbreak-associated. Additionally, the vaccination status of 94% of cases is classified as unvaccinated or unknown.” (2)
“More than 400 people are currently in quarantine across South Carolina, including students from various schools, according to health officials.
Across the U.S., at least 17 states have also reported measles cases this year including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Almost all cases are tied to ongoing outbreaks in pockets of undervaccinated or unvaccinated communities. Just three measles cases were reported among international travelers so far this year, according to CDC data.” (3)
South Carolina measles outbreak now worst in U.S. in decades, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/01/31/south-carolina-measles/
In this US county, measles starts to feel like next pandemic, by Madeline Halpert, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy10l9lwpyo
“And it is happening as the U.S. is already in danger of losing its status as a country that has eliminated measles. That’s a technical designation. It’s given to countries that have gone a year without a continuous chain of transmission. For the U.S., the clock started in January 2025 with the Texas outbreak.”
Measles elimination status is granted — and taken away — by a special verification commission set up by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). It reviews extensive evidence to determine whether the outbreaks in the U.S. are all part of a continuous chain of transmission that began with the outbreak in Texas in January 2025. Gathering the necessary epidemiological data, genomic analyses and surveillance reports takes time.
But even if PAHO determines that the outbreaks are separate, the U.S. could still lose its elimination status if it fails to prove that it can interrupt the spread of measles quickly and consistently, says Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, an infectious disease specialist and former top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And so far, he says, the U.S. is failing on this front.
“We do not have the capability to actually control measles, whether or not this is demonstrated through continuous measles transmission for 12 months,” Daskalakis said in a press briefing this month. “So I’m going to say that elimination is already lost.”” (4)
HHS Wasn’t Worried About South Carolina’s Measles Outbreak. It’s Now Enormous., by Kiera Butler, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/hhs-rfk-south-carolina-measles-outbreak/
1.To halt measles’ resurgence we must fight the plague of misinformation, By Michael Le Page, https://www.newscientist.com/article/2513398-to-halt-measles-resurgence-we-must-fight-the-plague-of-misinformation/
2.Measles cases reach 847 in South Carolina outbreak, https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2026-01-30-measles-cases-reach-847-south-carolina-outbreak#:~:text=The%20agency%20said%20most%20cases,to%20vaccination%20or%20natural%20infection.
3.At least 588 US measles cases reported in January: CDC, By Youri Benadjaoud and Mary Kekatos, https://abcnews.go.com/Health/588-us-measles-cases-reported-january-cdc/story?id=129699078
4.The U.S. will likely lose its measles elimination status. Here’s what that means, by Maria Godoy, https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5694681/measles-elimination-status-south-carolina-texas-outbreak
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai