Pan American Health Organization strips US of measles-free status
More than 5,400 measles cases were reported in the US in 2026, the highest number in several decades, the newspaper said.
The Pan American Health Organization stripped the US on Saturday of its measles-elimination status, Russia's state news agency TASS reported, citing The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper cited sources in reporting that the regional health body had removed the status, which means endemic measles transmission is no longer considered eliminated in the country.
The Wall Street Journal reported more than 5,400 measles cases in the US in 2026, the highest number in several decades.
Five deaths were recorded in November in Pennsylvania, New York and Wisconsin, the newspaper said, as a result of separate outbreaks of the disease.
The US reached measles-free status in 2000 through large-scale vaccination campaigns.
Since then, the share of children attending daycare who are vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella has fallen from 95.2 percent to 92.4 percent over the past six years, the newspaper reported.
To regain the status, the US must show no sustained transmission of the virus for at least 12 months, a process the newspaper said could take years.
Measles is a highly contagious viral illness, and vaccination is the main way to prevent it.
Public health officials have long warned that falling vaccination rates can allow outbreaks to spread among children and adults who are not protected.