In 2024, the U.S. reported 285 measles cases. Three months into 2025, 22 states have confirmed a total of 607 measles cases, according to the CDC.
There have been six outbreaks — defined as three or more related cases — reported in 2025; 93% of confirmed cases (567 of 607) are outbreak associated. Nearly 500 of those cases originate from Texas.
In 2024, the country saw 16 measles outbreaks, and 69% (198 of 285) of those cases were outbreak associated.
Seventy-four patients have been hospitalized in 2025, according to the CDC. These hospitalizations consist of 42 children younger than 5, 19 patients between the ages of 5 and 19, 12 adults older than 20, and one patient of an unknown age.
Three updates on the measles outbreak:
1. On March 6, New Mexico officials said a deceased resident of Lea County — which borders Texas — tested positive for measles. The cause of death is under investigation, but officials said a lab confirmed the presence of measles virus in the individual, who did not seek medical care.
A month later, a second pediatric death was reported in Texas. The patient was a school-age girl who was receiving treatment at University Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, NBC News reported. In late February, Texas officials confirmed the first outbreak-related death, who was also a school-age child hospitalized in Lubbock.
All three patients were unvaccinated, according to officials. Ninety-seven percent of the 607 measles cases in 2025 involved people who were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.
2. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has voiced vaccine skepticism for decades, said in an April 6 post on X: “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.”
3. Some clinicians in Texas and New Mexico are encountering measles for the first time, as the U.S. declared measles eliminated in 2000, according to The New York Times.
Measles has appeared in small batches across the U.S. since 2000, but public health experts have expressed worry about an increase of the viral infection as vaccination rates fall. “I remember learning about measles, German measles, all these things,” Seth Coombs, MD, a physician at the Lovington (N.M.) Medical Clinic who saw his first measles case in 2025, told the Times. “But you just don’t see them. And so like anything, if you don’t use it, you lose it.”
