Listen to this article with a free account
The United States officially registered 982 cases of measles in 2026the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. This is more than four times the number of cases compared to the same period last year, when a a large outbreak was just beginning in West Texas.
Twenty-six states have reported cases so far this year. Major epidemics continue to multiply Utah, Arizona and in particular 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 outbreak total to 973.
This is the the largest measles epidemic the United States has experienced in a generation. South Carolina state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said at least 20 people were hospitalized.
“These hospitalizations include both adults and children,” Bell said in a call with reporters Wednesday. “Other cases required medical attention for measles but were not hospitalized. »
A mobile health clinic offering free measles vaccinations in Spartanburg, South Carolina, earlier this month. The state is experiencing the largest measles outbreak the United States has seen in a generation.Sean Rayford/Getty ImagesAccording to the CDC, more than one in ten cases of measles in 2025 resulted in hospitalization. Most of them were children and adolescents.
In Florida, cases are also on the rise: the state health department has reported 92 cases so far this year. Sixty-six of those cases are in Collier County and are largely clustered at Ave Maria University near Naples.
Graduate student Blaise Carney said NBC affiliate station WBBH that he was one of the first on campus to get sick last month.
“It started with an ear infection,” Carney said. “And then it continued with the sniffles and sore throat and everything else. And then I got progressively worse, until I was in the emergency room and I had a rash all over my body.”
Carney said he was diagnosed with measles and strep throat at the same time and given intravenous fluids in the emergency room. He did not need to be admitted to the hospital and instead isolated himself in his dormitory, where he said he remained in bed for a week.
Carney said he was vaccinated against the virus as a child.
Two doses of measles vaccine – one given around age 1 and the second around age 5 – are given. 97% effective in preventing measlesusually for life, according to the CDC. This means that 3% of people can get measles even after being vaccinated.
Despite his illness, Carney said, the statistics are overwhelmingly in favor of the shots.
“If you’re not vaccinated, go ahead and get vaccinated,” he said. “It may not protect you 100%, but it’s your best chance.”
The vast majority of measles cases concern unvaccinated people.
Although most people recover, some develop long-term health problems after their telltale rash disappears. The virus targets cells that play a key role in a person’s immune system, making them vulnerable to further illness.
In rare cases, people can develop dangerous brain inflammation seven to 10 years after a measles infection. This disease, called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or SSPE, is almost always fatal.
On Saturday, doctors at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California described the details of a case. in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It involved a 7-year-old boy who went to the hospital after several months of progressively worsening seizures and cognitive problems.
The boy had contracted measles as a child while living in Afghanistan, where the virus was not eliminated. (The United States could lose elimination status starting this year, when vaccination rates fall and the virus regains its footing.)
Doctors wrote that when the boy arrived at the hospital, he could not speak and his body’s muscle reflexes were not functioning normally – signs of significant neurological problems. He was diagnosed with SSPE. Less than a year after his first symptoms, he died.
Before measles was eliminated in the United States, the CDC estimated that 7 to 11 people in 100,000 were at risk of SSPE. This risk may be higher in people infected with measles before their second birthday.
