Measles cases reach 35-year high - The Hill

What the report says

The Hill reported that U.S. measles cases have climbed to their highest level in more than 35 years, with Johns Hopkins University’s measles tracking dashboard showing 2,295 cases as of Thursday. That figure has now exceeded the total recorded for 2025, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not yet updated its own count at the time of the report.

According to The Hill, the last time the U.S. recorded a higher annual measles total was 1990, when nearly 28,000 cases were reported. After that, infections dropped sharply as vaccination efforts expanded and the two-dose measles vaccine schedule became standard. The disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, and annual case counts generally stayed in the range of dozens to a few hundred for many years.

The Hill cited Johns Hopkins vaccine expert William Moss, who said broad vaccination coverage has helped protect both vaccinated people and those who were not fully protected through herd protection. He warned that measles can spread quickly where communities include clusters of susceptible people across different age groups.

The increase matters because measles is highly contagious and outbreaks can test local public health systems, especially in areas with lower vaccination coverage. The Hill reported that, in the CDC’s most recent update, 34 new measles outbreaks had been declared this year and 44 jurisdictions had reported cases.