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United States Loses Its Measles-Elimination Status, Report Says
By Eleanor Ever Loyal
Photo: PhilippN / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The Pan American Health Organization has revoked the United States’ measles-elimination status after determining that the country failed to halt continuous transmission for more than a year, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The reported decision would end a 26-year run of measles elimination in the United States. But the decision had not been publicly announced by PAHO, the World Health Organization’s Americas branch, and PAHO did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The Department of Health and Human Services also did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.
The revocation therefore remains a reported decision rather than a public confirmation by the organization that makes the determination.
The standard turns on whether the same measles strain has circulated without interruption for 12 months or longer. A source familiar with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s findings told Reuters that the agency determined the United States had reached 12 months of continuous transmission. The CDC’s report remains confidential, according to Reuters.
Noel Brewer, who chairs an independent advisory panel on measles, presented the CDC’s report and his panel’s assessment to PAHO on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
The reported decision follows a sharp rise in U.S. measles cases. According to CDC figures reported by Reuters, the United States had recorded 5,182 confirmed cases in 2026 as of Thursday, spanning 45 states, New York City and the District of Columbia.
Reuters reported that the figure was more than double the 2,289 cases recorded in 2025 and represented the country’s highest annual total in more than three decades. Since 2025, the United States has recorded some 7,500 infections and 13 deaths, according to the CDC figures cited by Reuters.
Other reporting has produced different totals. Al Jazeera separately reported more than 5,400 cases this year and 10 measles-associated deaths, figures that differ from the CDC counts reported by Reuters.
The United States achieved measles-elimination status in 2000. Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom have recently lost their elimination status, according to the reporting.
The United States has left the World Health Organization but remains a member of PAHO, Reuters reported.
CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz told Reuters before the reported decision that losing elimination status would not change the agency’s basic response. The CDC would do “the same exact thing,” she said, working with states to encourage immunisation.
Public-health experts quoted by Reuters described the reported loss as both preventable and consequential.
“It is a fully preventable disease. It is unconscionable that we have this amount of measles,” Brewer, of the University of North Carolina, said.
William Moss of Johns Hopkins told Reuters that losing elimination status would damage the country’s reputation as a public-health powerhouse and would mean continued large outbreaks that put people at risk of hospitalization and death.
Measles transmission can be halted at about 95% vaccination coverage, according to the information reported by Reuters. Two doses provide 97% protection. Measles can cause blindness, deafness, brain damage or death.
If the reported revocation is confirmed, the United States could regain its elimination status by ending transmission and remaining outbreak-free for at least 12 months.
For now, however, the status change itself has not been publicly confirmed by PAHO. The Wall Street Journal’s report, cited by Reuters, says the organization has made the decision; PAHO has not commented publicly, and the CDC report underlying the determination remains confidential.
Eleanor Ever Loyal
National Desk, The Library Media
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