US loses measles-free status as two more deaths reported

Latest deaths in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin include a baby as the country battles the highest number of measles cases it has seen in more than 30 years.

The United States has lost its measles-free status, 26 years after it was considered “eliminated” from the country, according to US media reports.

This comes as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin states announced one additional measles-associated death each on Friday, marking 10 total deaths in the US linked to the disease this year.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)’s decision to revoke the United States’ measles-elimination ⁠status, first reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), comes as the country battles the highest number of measles cases it has seen in more than 30 years.

According to PAHO’s rules, the elimination status was revoked after it determined that the country experienced the uninterrupted transmission of measles for more than 12 months.

About 7,500 people in the US ⁠have been infected with measles and 13 have died since last year. That period coincides with the tenure as US Health Secretary of Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has for years spread doubts – without scientific evidence- about the safety of measles vaccines.

The latest deaths include a baby

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported an infant’s death on Friday, while the Pennsylvania Department of Health said that its latest death was an unvaccinated patient who had tested positive for measles.

Pennsylvania has logged seven measles-associated deaths, while Wisconsin has reported two. On November 2, New York said a child had died in the state’s first recorded measles death in more than 30 years.

More than 5,400 confirmed measles cases have been recorded in the US to date, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Johns Hopkins University International Vaccine Access Center tracker.

The number of confirmed cases as of November 2026 is more than double the 2,289 confirmed cases reported in 2025.

The CDC recorded six measles-related deaths, according to figures on its website. The newly reported data is twice the deaths the agency recorded in 2025.

Dispute over death toll

The CDC’s national death toll is lower than the number of measles-related deaths reported by state officials.

Kennedy asked CDC director Erica Schwartz not to count the deaths in the official tally, claiming there was no evidence they were measles-associated.

The federal count of measles reports has been at the centre of a dispute between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Kennedy over how measles deaths are classified.

Pennsylvania, the state hardest hit by the outbreak, reports “measles-associated” deaths after a person with confirmed measles dies within 30 days of developing symptoms, unless the death resulted from an unrelated event.

The CDC has said it is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to establish a standardised definition for measles deaths.

Infectious disease experts warn that the dispute over how to classify the deaths puts the CDC at odds with a longstanding approach to tracking the consequences of measles.

Epidemiologists have told Al Jazeera that tracking “measles-associated” deaths has long been a standard used by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC.

Measles elimination on the brink

Measles, a highly contagious virus, was officially declared eliminated in the US in 2000.

The outbreak comes as vaccination coverage among US kindergarteners has decreased from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 92.4 percent in the 2025-2026 school year.

Local and state health departments have ramped up vaccination efforts.

Measles is preventable through the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which offers approximately 97 percent protection after two doses.

Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom recently lost measles-elimination status after a review by WHO experts. The US dropped out of the WHO but remains a member of PAHO, its Americas branch.