The CDC's weekly measles surveillance page now confirms 2,318 measles cases in the United States for 2026, a figure posted Friday and current through July 23. That total passes the 2,289 cases the agency recorded for all of 2025 and makes this the largest annual count since 1991.
What the newly posted federal data add is not just a bigger number. They show where the risk actually sits. According to CDC figures compiled by Axios, seven states account for more than 84% of the national total, and two of them, South Carolina with 670 cases and Utah with 522, together represent about half of every confirmed case in the country.
That concentration matters more this week than it did last week, because families in those same states are now within a few weeks of registration deadlines and the start of the school year.
Why This Matters
For most households in most of the country, the practical risk of measles exposure today remains low. For households in Utah, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona, the picture is different, and it is about to change again as classrooms, daycares and school buses refill.
Measles spreads through the air and can linger in a room for up to two hours after an infected person leaves. That is why a single unvaccinated child in a classroom with below-average immunization coverage can produce a chain of exposures across a school, a pediatric waiting room and a household with an infant too young for a first dose.
What We Know So Far
The CDC reports that 2,302 of the 2,318 cases were reported by 45 jurisdictions, with 16 cases among international visitors. There have been 35 new outbreaks in 2026, and 93% of confirmed cases, or 2,153, are outbreak-associated. Of those, 1,371 trace back to outbreaks that began in 2025 and carried into this year.
No measles deaths have been confirmed in the United States in 2026, a fact that has held steady across recent weekly updates. Three deaths were recorded during the 2025 outbreak period.
The CDC also notes that national MMR coverage among kindergartners fell to 92.5% in the 2024 to 2025 school year, down from 95.2% in 2019 to 2020, leaving roughly 286,000 kindergartners unprotected in a single school year.
Where the Risk Is Highest
South Carolina's Upstate outbreak, which ultimately reached 997 cases by state count before officials declared it over in April, still supplies the largest share of this year's carryover cases. Utah's outbreak along the Utah and Arizona line has been running for more than a year and has driven more than 500 cases in 2026 alone.
Texas, which led the nation in 2025 with 803 cases, has reported 188 this year. State officials have cautioned that confirmed counts understate reality. Dr. Varun Shetty, Texas chief epidemiologist, told the Associated Press that "what we're able to count and report is almost always an underestimate."
What Doctors and Public Health Leaders Say
Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told CNN that the situation reflects a preventable systems failure, saying: "This essentially is a public health failure, and it's avoidable."
Clinicians in outbreak states describe a disease most American doctors trained after 2000 have never seen. Dr. Stuart Simko, a pediatrician at Prisma Health in Greer, South Carolina, told NBC News that a child with measles "looks like the flu on steroids." Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the United States has now joined the group of countries where immunization is falling short of what children need.
What the Data Show and What They Do Not
The CDC's 2026 counts are preliminary and subject to revision. The agency publishes only laboratory-confirmed cases notified to it as of noon each Thursday, so state dashboards frequently run ahead of the federal number. State-level totals published by the CDC may also differ from what a state health department posts on the same day.
The data show a clear association between falling kindergarten MMR coverage and sustained transmission. They do not, on their own, establish how much of this year's total is attributable to any single policy, agency staffing level or state decision. Those are separate questions that the surveillance numbers cannot settle.
Who Faces the Greatest Risk
Health officials identify unvaccinated children as the group carrying the most risk, followed by infants under 12 months who are too young for a first MMR dose, pregnant people, and anyone with a weakened immune system, including people in cancer treatment or after an organ transplant. Roughly one in five unvaccinated people who contract measles is hospitalized.
Residents of counties where kindergarten coverage sits below the 95% community-immunity threshold face meaningfully higher exposure risk than residents of high-coverage counties in the same state.
Symptoms and Warning Signs to Watch For
Measles typically begins with high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes, followed several days later by a rash that starts at the hairline and moves down the body. Small white spots may appear inside the mouth before the rash.
Anyone who suspects measles should call the clinic or emergency department before arriving, so staff can prevent exposure in the waiting room. Difficulty breathing, dehydration, seizure, confusion, or a rapidly worsening condition warrants urgent evaluation.
What You Can Do Now
Parents can check immunization records now rather than during the back-to-school rush, and ask a clinician whether a child is due for a second dose. Adults uncertain of their own status can ask about documentation or titer testing. Families traveling internationally, or to a state with an active outbreak, should ask a clinician about early dosing guidance for infants.
Local health department pages remain the fastest source for county-level exposure notices, which often name specific dates, clinics, airports, and stores.
Cost and Access
The MMR vaccine is covered without cost sharing by most private insurance plans and by Medicaid. The federally funded Vaccines for Children program provides MMR at no cost for eligible children who are uninsured, underinsured, Medicaid-enrolled, or American Indian or Alaska Native. County health departments in outbreak areas have run mobile and pop-up clinics, and families should check local listings before assuming an appointment is unavailable.
What Happens Next
The CDC updates its national count each week. International health officials are scheduled to assess in November whether the United States can still claim measles elimination status, a determination that turns on whether any single chain of transmission has continued uninterrupted for 12 months. The Utah and Arizona cluster is the one most relevant to that review. MedicalDaily will track the weekly CDC releases and the November assessment.
The Bottom Line
The newest confirmed fact is that the CDC's own surveillance now puts 2026 at 2,318 measles cases through July 23, with no deaths recorded this year. The households most affected are unvaccinated families in seven states carrying most of the burden, and the most reasonable step before the school year is a records check with a clinician. The central uncertainty is how much of the true case load remains uncounted, and the next scheduled development is the November elimination-status review.
Developing Story Timeline
July 24, 2026: CDC posts 2,318 confirmed cases for 2026, data current through July 23, surpassing the 2,289 recorded for all of 2025.
July 22, 2026: Independent trackers report the national total crossing the 2025 full-year mark ahead of the CDC's weekly release.
April 2026: South Carolina declares its Upstate outbreak over after 42 days without a linked case, at 997 state-counted cases.
