The United States recorded its worst measles epidemic in 35 years in 2026, according to an official count published Friday, this serious and contagious disease making a powerful comeback for more than a year, against a backdrop of growing mistrust of vaccines.
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In just seven months, 2,318 confirmed cases have been recorded according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than in 2025, a year which had already exploded records with 2,289 cases and three deaths, including two young children.
It is “a preventable crisis that disproportionately affects children,” recalled Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in a press release on Friday. “We should not accept this as our new normal. »
Measles causes fever, respiratory symptoms and rash, and in some cases more serious complications, such as pneumonia and inflammation of the brain which can cause serious damage or even death.
In 2000, this highly contagious disease was considered eradicated from the United States, thanks to vaccination.
But it has made a comeback in recent years, against a backdrop of falling vaccination rates and growing mistrust of health authorities.
A crisis to which Trump’s Minister of Health, vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr, is accused of largely contributing by fueling fears about the vaccine.
The United States has not reached this level of measles cases since 1991, when 9,643 cases were recorded.
Before a vaccine was developed in the early 1960s, measles killed hundreds of children each year in the United States, and continues to claim tens of thousands of lives around the world.
