US loses measles-elimination status after 26 years, WSJ reports

The Pan American Health Organization has revoked the United States' measles-elimination status, ending a 26-year run, after finding the country failed to stop the virus spreading continuously for more than a year, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

A source close to the process told CNN that an independent commission of experts reporting to PAHO's director concluded the US no longer qualified.

PAHO reviewed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) evidence on whether one strain had circulated uninterrupted for 12 months or longer, a sign of local spread rather than imported cases. A source familiar with the CDC's findings told Reuters the agency found 12 months of continuous transmission.

The US had held elimination status since 2000. This year, however, the CDC has recorded 5,182 confirmed cases as of Thursday – across 45 states, New York City and Washington, D.C. This is more than double 2025's total of 2,289.

About 7,500 people have been infected and 13 have died since 2025. Nearly all of this year's cases involve people who were unvaccinated or whose status is unknown, and roughly one in nine patients were hospitalized, CNN reported, citing the CDC.

This period has been marked with increased vaccine hesitancy under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who for years shown skepticism about the safety of measles vaccines, without scientific proof.

Experts point to the fact that measles is preventable through vaccination.

"It is a fully preventable disease. It is unconscionable that we have this amount of measles," said Noel Brewer, a University of North Carolina public health professor who chairs an independent advisory panel on measles. He presented the CDC's report to PAHO on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Johns Hopkins epidemiologist William Moss told Reuters the loss damages America's reputation as a public health leader and means large outbreaks will continue.

CDC Director Erica Schwartz, before the decision, said that the agency would keep working with states to encourage vaccination.

To regain the status, a country must end transmission and stay outbreak-free for at least 12 months.