LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States had recorded 3,134 confirmed measles cases this year as of Thursday, with the nationwide total continuing to rise amid declining childhood vaccination coverage, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The figure has already surpassed the 2,289 confirmed cases reported for the whole of 2025. The 2026 total is the highest annual number recorded in the United States since 1991, according to the CDC.
Of the cases reported this year, 3,118 were identified across 47 U.S. jurisdictions, while 16 were among international visitors. A total of 248 people have been hospitalized, accounting for about 8 percent of confirmed cases, and 38 measles outbreaks have been reported so far this year.
About 94 percent of confirmed cases involved people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, the CDC said. The agency recommends two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as the best protection against measles.
The CDC said measles vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners fell to 92.4 percent in the 2025-2026 school year, down from 95.2 percent in the 2019-2020 school year. About 280,000 kindergartners did not have documentation of completing the MMR vaccine series.
The agency has said that when more than 95 percent of people in a community are vaccinated, most people are protected through community immunity.
