The United States has lost the measles-elimination status it held for 26 years, according to reports published on Friday, after an expert commission determined that the virus has been spreading continuously inside the country for more than a year.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the decision on Friday, November 13, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters reported the same day that the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) — the World Health Organization's regional office for the Americas — had revoked the status, and CNN reported that an independent commission of experts reporting to PAHO's director had determined the United States no longer qualified as having eliminated measles, according to a source close to the process.
One important caveat: as of Friday night, PAHO had not yet published the decision in its own name and did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment, and the US Department of Health and Human Services did not respond either. A formal PAHO announcement is expected on Tuesday, November 17. What has been reported — by three separate news organisations — is the commission's finding itself.
Elimination never meant zero cases. The United States earned the status in 2000 because measles was no longer spreading continuously at home; the outbreaks that still happened were sparked by infected travellers and quickly died out. A country loses the status when the same strain of the virus passes from person to person, uninterrupted, for at least 12 months — the sign that transmission is local again, not imported.
That is what the evidence showed. PAHO reviewed epidemiological and laboratory evidence submitted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A source familiar with the CDC's findings said the agency itself determined the US had seen 12 months of continuous transmission. In Utah, state laboratory scientists reported in August that the same strain had circulated for more than a year, accounting for more than 95% of the state's cases and more than 600 infections between June 2025 and June 2026. Sustained outbreaks have also been reported in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New York.
The numbers behind the decision are the worst in a generation. The CDC had received 5,182 confirmed measles cases in 2026 as of Thursday, November 12 — from 45 states, New York City and the District of Columbia — already more than double the whole of 2025's total of 2,289, according to Reuters. CNN, counting reports through Friday, put this year's total at more than 5,400 cases, the highest since 1991, with at least 10 measles deaths in 2026 according to state reports and roughly one in nine patients hospitalised. Nearly all of this year's cases have been in people who were not vaccinated against measles or whose vaccination status is unknown. Since the start of 2025, about 7,500 people in the US have been infected and 13 have died, Reuters reported.
For Arab-American families, the practical message has not changed — it has become more urgent. Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known: one infected person typically spreads it to 12 to 18 others, and the virus can linger in a room for hours after the person leaves. Two doses of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine protect an exposed person with 97% effectiveness, and when about 95% of a community is vaccinated, that "herd immunity" also protects babies too young to be vaccinated and people whose immune systems are weakened by illness or treatment. Health experts quoted by CNN and Reuters warned that continued large outbreaks — not the label itself — are the real risk, bringing more hospitalisations and deaths.
Regaining the status is possible, but it is not quick: the United States would have to end continuous transmission and then remain free of it for at least 12 months. CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz told Reuters before the decision that if the US lost elimination status, the agency would do "the same exact thing" it is doing now — working with states to encourage immunisation. Canada lost its measles-elimination status last year after a long multi-province outbreak, and Spain and the United Kingdom have also recently lost theirs.
If your children are due — or overdue — for their MMR doses, this is the week to check their records with your doctor or school and catch up. That single check is still the strongest protection a family can give them.
Sources: Reuters (Nov 13, 2026) — PAHO revocation reported via the Wall Street Journal, CDC case counts and expert reaction; CNN (Nov 13, 2026) — the PAHO commission's determination, the Utah strain study, case, hospitalisation and death tallies; Wall Street Journal (Nov 13, 2026, first report, via Reuters/CNN); NBC News and CIDRAP reporting on the formal PAHO announcement expected Nov 17, 2026.
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