The United States is now seeing a rising number of measles outbreaks, especially among people who are not vaccinated against the highly contagious disease.
As of August 22, the U.S. has reported a total of 227 measles cases. U.S. health officials have also reported a total of 13 outbreaks, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Minnesota accounted for 30 cases of measles, as reported by the state's Department of Health.
For comparison, there were only 59 measles cases in 2023. That is a 284% increase between 2023 and 2024. Furthermore, there were only four outbreaks reported last year.
Rising Number of Measles Cases in the US
Of the 227 cases reported this year, 89 were among children under the age of five, 67 affected those between the ages of five and 19, and 71 were reported in people ages 20 and older.
Of the people who contracted measles, 44% were hospitalized for isolation or management of symptoms. More than half of all hospitalizations involved children below the age of five.
By vaccination states, 86% of all measles cases reported were in people who were unvaccinated for the disease. Comparatively, only 9% had at least one dose of the MMR vaccine while only 5% had received two shots.
Measles vaccines are given in two doses: the first between 12 months and 15 months of age, and the second between four and six years old. A single dose of the MMR vaccine is roughly 93% effective in preventing the disease. This goes up to 97% for those who have had two doses of the MMR vaccine.
US Vaccination Rates
Part of why there is an outbreak in the US is the falling vaccination rate among children. Vaccine coverage among kindergarteners fell to 93.1% in the 2022-2023 school year. This fell short of the CDC's 95% coverage target. Only 13 states met this goal during the period.
The US last met the CDC's vaccine coverage target in the 2019-2020 school year, when there were at least 20 states that matched or exceeded the threshold. At the time, the national vaccine coverage rate was 95.2%.
