Officially recorded by the United States In 2026, there will be 982 measles casesThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. This is more than four times the number of infected people at this time last year. A major outbreak was just beginning in West Texas..
Twenty-six states have reported cases so far this year. Large-scale infections continue to spread Utah, Arizona And most notably, South Carolina, where the virus has been spreading since the fall. As of Friday, the state had reported nearly 800 cases since January, bringing the total outbreak to 973.
it is Largest single measles outbreak America went through it in one generation. South Carolina state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said at least 20 people are hospitalized.
“These hospitalizations include adults and children,” Bell said on a call with reporters Wednesday. “Additionally, there have been cases in which patients required treatment for measles but were not hospitalized.”
According to the CDC, in 2025, more than 1 in 10 measles cases resulted in hospitalization. Most of them were children and teenagers.
Cases are also on the rise in Florida, with the state health department reporting 92 new cases since the beginning of the year. Sixty-six of the cases are in Collier County, primarily at Ave Maria University near Naples.
Graduate student Blaise Kearney said: NBC affiliate station WBBH He was one of the first people on campus to get sick last month, he said.
“It started with an ear infection,” Carney said. “Then I had a runny nose, sore throat, etc. After that, my symptoms got worse and worse, and I ended up in the ER with a rash all over my body.”
Carney said he was diagnosed with measles and strep throat at the same time and was put on an IV in the ER. He did not need to be hospitalized and spent a week in bed in isolation in his dormitory.
Carney said he was vaccinated against the virus as a child.
The measles vaccine is given in two doses (first dose at around 1 year of age and second dose at around 5 years of age). 97% effective in preventing measlesUsually for a lifetime, according to the CDC. This means that 3% of people may still get measles even after vaccination.
Despite his illness, Carney said the statistics overwhelmingly favor shooting.
“If you haven’t been vaccinated, please get vaccinated,” he said. “It may not protect you 100%, but it’s your best bet.”
The majority of measles cases occur among unvaccinated people.
Most people recover, but some develop symptoms long term health problems After the obvious rash has subsided. The virus targets cells that play a key role in a person’s immune system, leaving them vulnerable to subsequent illness.
In rare cases, dangerous brain inflammation can develop 7 to 10 years after measles infection. This condition is called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and is almost always fatal.
On Saturday, doctors at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California detailed one case. Published in New England Medical Journal.
The case involved a 7-year-old boy who presented to the hospital with several months of seizures and cognitive impairment that gradually worsened.
The boy contracted measles as an infant while living in Afghanistan, where the virus was endemic. not excluded. (The US may lose exclusion status Later this year, vaccination rates will decline and the virus will take hold again.)
Doctors wrote that when the boy arrived at the hospital, he could not speak and the reflexes in his body’s muscles were not working properly, a sign of serious neurological problems. I was diagnosed with SSPE. He died within a year after the first symptoms appeared.
Before measles was eliminated in the United States, the CDC estimated that: 7 to 11 people per 100,000 were at risk of SSPE. Children who contract measles before their second birthday may be at increased risk.