Behind the familiar symptoms of fever and spots lies a highly contagious virus that can cause permanent damage or death. This is the reality of measles.
But many in the US appear to have forgotten the seriousness of the meat infection, with outbreaks occurring primarily in under-vaccinated communities.
In fact, infections have reached a 35-year high as declining vaccination rates have increased the number of susceptible people.
Experts have warned that fading memories of a once common disease have left many people unaware of its dangers.
number of Measles cases in the United States by mid-July 2026 Surpassed the total number of cases in 2025. As of the week of July 13–19, 2026, the number of reported measles cases was 2,321. By comparison, the total number of measles cases in the US in 2025 was 2,286*.
*Data: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, US Measles Tracker
What does the increase in measles cases mean?
William Moss, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, expects the US to lose measles-elimination status since 2000 as a result of the increase in measles cases.
“The importance of reaching this milestone is that the United States is not able to prevent measles virus transmission or outbreaks as it has in the past,” Moss told DW.
Moss said the virus is now spreading “from one susceptible community to another within the US” rather than being limited to infections brought in from abroad.
Measles virus is contagious before spots appear
Measles is the most contagious virus on Earth, spreading far more easily than the common cold. Nine out of 10 non-immunized people exposed to the virus will become infected.
Measles is spread by virus-containing droplets released from the nose, throat and lungs of an infected person when he or she breathes, talks or coughs. The smallest particles can remain suspended in the air long after the person leaves the room.
“You just have to be in someone’s airspace within two hours,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Importantly, people can spread measles even before they realize they are infected.
Patients usually become infectious about four days before the characteristic spots or rash appear.
The combination of airborne particles, widespread infection, and transmission before obvious symptoms allows the virus to take advantage of even relatively short gaps in vaccination.
Complications of measles may appear years later
In the US, one in five people who consume food are hospitalized.
One in 20 infected children gets pneumonia, while one in 1,000 gets encephalitis, a form of brain inflammation that can cause permanent brain damage.
One to three out of every 1,000 infected children die from respiratory or neurological complications.
“We had two unvaccinated children – a healthy six-year-old, a healthy eight-year-old – died from food poisoning,” Offit told DW.
Both died of pneumonia. “It’s like dying by suffocation,” he said. “It’s a horrible way to die.”
In those who survive, the damage may persist long after the fever and spots disappear.
Measles can suppress the immune system for years, destroying some of the protection previously developed against other viruses and bacteria.
Another late complication is subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare but fatal degenerative brain disease that can appear up to 10 years after the original infection.
“Children get infected, they get better, they recover,” Offit said. “And then five years later, seven years later, they come down with a decline in handwriting skills, a decline in personality and then they go into a vegetative state and die.”
Has the threat of measles been forgotten?
Vaccination has driven measles out of everyday life in the US. But that success has also weakened people’s understanding of why vaccination is important.
Offit said, “We have not only largely eliminated measles from our country; we have also eliminated the memory of measles.”
“The most serious complications of measles are relatively rare and only become apparent when there are large numbers of cases,” Moss said. “Unfortunately, the increasing number of measles cases in the US will once again teach us that this is not always a harmless childhood infection.”
Caitlin Zetelina, an epidemiologist who publishes a Substack newsletter called “Your Local Epidemiologist,” said falling vaccination rates reflect “a general amnesia about these diseases,” lies on social media and a broader loss of trust in institutions.
“Outbreaks remain in under-vaccinated communities,” Zetelina said. “There are unvaccinated areas across the country. All it takes is one spark for this disease to spread like wildfire in those areas.”
Edited by: Zulfikar Abbani