Falling childhood vaccine coverage and a large, smoldering outbreak that was kindled in an undervaccinated pocket of West Texas have driven the United States to a troubling new milestone: There have been more measles cases in the US this year than any other since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago.
There have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases of measles reported in the US in 2025, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation.
Just halfway through the year, the case tally has already surpassed the last record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases.
12 to 15 months is the standard schedule, but if you are concerned about being in a measles hotspot, talk to your pediatrician about an earlier vaccination. The current CDC guidance is for infants between 6 and 11 months to get one dose of the vaccine before international travel [0]. Assuming the mother was vaccinated, young babies will inherit the immunity from her for the first few months of their life.
[0] This is in addition to the standard 2 dose vaccine schedule. So such children will end up with 3 doses instead of the normal 2.