A nurse administers a measles vaccine to a child at a public health center in Nejapa, El Salvador, in April. The United States just reached a record high of measles cases this year. File Photo by Javier Aparicio/EPA
July 24 (UPI) -- Measles cases have hit a record high in the United States since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The CDC said there have been 2,318 confirmed cases of measles so far this year, which beats last year's record-breaking number of 2,289. Last year, two unvaccinated children died of the disease. More measles cases have been reported in the United States in the past two years than in all the years from 2000 through 2024 combined, The New York Times reported.
In November, a panel of experts will meet to decide if the United States has lost its status as a country that has "eliminated" the disease.
"This is just going to keep happening," Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, told The Times. "It's going to mean living in a perpetual state of vulnerability and risk until we get vaccination levels up."
