US measles cases surpass 3,000 as vaccination coverage declines

The United States has recorded a record-breaking 3,134 confirmed measles cases in 2026, surpassing the previous annual high of 2,289 cases set in 1991, according to data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The increase in cases is attributed to declining childhood vaccination coverage, with about 94% of confirmed cases involving people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.

This is a significant decline from the 95.2% vaccination coverage among US kindergartners in the 2019-2020 school year, which has since dropped to 92.4%. The CDC recommends two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine as the best protection against measles, and notes that when more than 95% of people in a community are vaccinated, most people are protected through community immunity.

Brief written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.