Elimination status at risk this week

Measles was officially declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but the country could lose its measles elimination status this week. Losing that designation would place the US alongside Canada and several countries in Europe and Asia.

Six deaths, twice last year's toll

The new figures, published on the CDC's website on Thursday, put the 2026 death toll at six, twice the number recorded in 2025. They arrive as the US measles outbreak 2026 has become the largest since 1991, with more than 5,400 cases reported nationwide according to the Johns Hopkins University International Vaccine Access Center tracker.

• •Six measles-related deaths reported nationally in 2026, per figures published Thursday
• •The total is double the 2025 count
• •Largest outbreak since 1991, with more than 5,400 cases tracked by Johns Hopkins
• •The CDC did not identify which states accounted for the six deaths

Where the deaths occurred

Pennsylvania officials have confirmed six measles-associated deaths in the state this year, making it the hardest-hit state. A child also died in New York on election day - the state's first known measles-related fatality in more than three decades - followed days later by the death of an infant in Wisconsin, confirmed by the Wisconsin department of health services. Active outbreaks have been reported in nearly every US state.

Changed counting method amid dispute

Per a note dated 4 September, the CDC now uses data from the National Center for Health Statistics to track measles fatalities. That change came the day after Reuters reported that health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr argued, without evidence, that two Pennsylvania deaths may not be from measles and asked CDC director Erica Schwartz not to count them in the official tally. The MMR vaccine, which the CDC's data change touches the tracking of, offers approximately 97% protection after two doses.