JONATHAN M. METSCH, Dr.P.H., Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – April 4, 2026 – Measles
There have been 1,566 domestic cases confirmed across 30 states, and nine reported among international visitors, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Both 2025 and 2026 year have marked two of the worst years for measles since the U.S. eliminated the preventable disease in 2000.” (2)
“Dr. Jerome Adams, the former U.S. Surgeon General, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about spikes in measles cases in the U.S.
According to the CDC, there are now more than 1,500 confirmed measles cases in the the U.S. since January, with a spike happening in Utah.
This prompted Brennan to ask Dr. Adams why the existing health infrastructure can’t stop this, to which Adams said:
“That’s a great question. And you have to start off by understanding that almost 20,000 people have been cut from HHS. And so normally, we have measles cases every year. We had about 250 in 2024. We had about 2,000 last year…We’re at 1,500 already this year. But normally, we’re able to control those outbreaks because of the CDC, because of public health infrastructure in funding. All of that has been cut. And now instead of one case turning into two or three and being stopped, it’s turning into 20, and 50 and 100 cases. And we’re also seeing falling vaccination rates, a broad group of states are falling below that 95% threshold for herd immunity for measles. Utah, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, all below that 95% threshold. And the further we get below that, the more these outbreaks explode.” (3)
“Now, doctors and researchers fear that as vaccination rates drop and measles spreads in the U.S., cases of this debilitating complication will also rise here. Since the start of 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded over 3,500 measles cases — more than in the entire preceding decade — mostly people who were unvaccinated. Many were children. Last year, Connecticut doctors diagnosed a 6-year-old with SSPE, and in California, a school-age child who’d had measles as an infant died of it.” (5)
Colorado confirms measles in an infant, too young to be vaccinated, By Alison Borden, https://www.cpr.org/2026/03/31/colorado-measles-infant-case/
“For the second time in two years, Texas is experiencing a significant measles outbreak. But unlike last year’s outbreak in the South Plains, little information is available about the new surge because it erupted at a privately operated federal detention center — and company officials aren’t talking.
What blunted the effect of this outbreak is that the West Texas Detention Facility is in Hudspeth County. That expansive county is even more sparsely populated than Gaines County, where last year’s outbreak was centered. Still, dozens of cases are already at the detention center in Sierra Blanca, the seat of Hudspeth County. Related infections have turned up in El Paso, the closest big city, according to The Texas Tribune.
The Tribune’s reporting solves this mystery: Why did federal officials report many more cases of measles in Texas than the Department of State Health Services did? At the time, the state tallied 18 infections while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 93.
News stories showed scattered cases at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Dilley and at Camp East Montana near El Paso. But dozens of cases were unaccounted for, and neither ICE nor the CDC explained them.
Now we know: Most of those mystery cases were affiliated with a third federal facility, the one in Sierra Blanca, which is operated by Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections for the U.S. Marshals Service.” (4)
“A West Texas health official praised for her efforts in curbing a measles outbreak that swept the region last year is going against traditional public health guidance in the face of new outbreaks across the country — suggesting that health officials let the virus “run through” communities where people are hesitant to get vaccinated.
Dr. Katherine Wells is the director of the Lubbock Public Health Department, whose facilities treated many of the 99 people who were hospitalized during last year’s outbreak, the nation’s largest in 25 years. Wells had a monumental crisis on her hands: The virus infected more than 700 people and killed two otherwise healthy children in the region, where immunization rates among kids were plummeting as anti-vaccine sentiment thrived. Despite the roadblocks, Wells’ plan to respond was straightforward and simple: Get more people vaccinated.
“Local public health department directors have an uphill battle — responding to measles and trying to get people vaccinated with a vaccine that we’ve had for over 50 years,” Wells told The 19th last year. “You’d hope people would trust and believe that that’s what we need to do.”This year, as a massive measles outbreak grips South Carolina and cases crop up nationally — including in Lubbock — Wells seems to have changed her tune on government response to the virus, drawing criticism from her peers.
“I think if we’re going to continue to see measles outbreaks, there’s going to have to be a little bit of a different strategy,” Wells said earlier this month on the “Why Should I Trust You?” podcast. “It’s almost — I know this sounds horrible, but it’s almost like you have to let it run through certain populations, and then you also have to focus strategically on where you’re going to do the quarantine and isolation.”
Wells defended the heel-turn by citing the social and educational costs of repeatedly quarantining schoolchildren who are exposed, and the exhausting and ongoing work of persuading the vaccine-hesitant to inoculate.” (1)
Measles vaccination rates for toddlers plummet across LI, https://www.newsday.com/opinion/the-point/long-island-measles-mmr-vaccination-rates-cd1-jonathan-schneider-qrg2upj3
Tracking the 2026 U.S. Measles Outbreaks, By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder, https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2026-03-27/tracking-the-2026-u-s-measles-outbreaks
Less than 25% of lower-income nations meet measles elimination targets, https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/less-25-lower-income-nations-meet-measles-elimination-targets
1.She once curbed a measles outbreak with vaccines. Experts call her new proposal ‘giving up.’, By Will McDuffie, https://www.ms.now/news/public-health-director-measles-outbreak-unvaccinated-children
2.US measles cases just climbed to over 1,500, with surges in three states, by Julia Musto, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/measles-us-cases-utah-texas-florida-b2948542.html
3.Former U.S. Surgeon General on measles case spikes, Casey Means nomination and more, By Dillon Fuhrman, https://kyma.com/decision-2024/national-politics/2026/03/30/former-u-s-surgeon-general-on-measles-case-spikes-casey-means-nomination-and-more/
4.After measles outbreak, why are feds keeping Texans in the dark?, https://tucson.com/opinion/column/article_cb9ec90f-ab23-5100-be8a-25d3282933b9.html
5.US doctors warn of a deadly complication from measles outbreaks, https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/us-doctors-warn-deadly-complication-measles-outbreaks
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai