More measles outbreaks feared as children head back to school
Measles infections in the U.S. have hit a 35 year high
As children head back to school this August and September, parents and pediatricians are bracing for what Northeastern University experts call “almost certain” outbreaks of measles across the U.S.
Cases of the infectious disease have hit a 35 year high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the infection has been confirmed in 46 states and Washington D.C.
The CDC also announced on Monday that the percentage of kindergarten students who are exempt from getting typically required school vaccines reached a new high in the last school year.
For the 2025-2026 school year, about 4.2 percent of all kindergarten children across the U.S. had an exemption from getting vaccines, up from 3.6 the year before, according to the agency. The exemption rate increased in 41 states and D.C. with 24 states reporting exemption rates above 5 percent for kindergarteners.
The fewer children vaccinated, the higher the risk of outbreaks, said Neil Maniar, a Northeastern University professor of practice and the director of the Master of Public Health in Urban Health program in the Department of Health Sciences.
“Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases out there, at a 90 percent rate,” Maniar said. “It’s also potentially fatal. In this day and age, no one should be hospitalized or die from measles.”
In the CDC’s Friday announcement, South Carolina, Utah and Texas showed the highest rates of infection, with South Carolina on top with 670 cases.
Maniar confirmed the worst cases are fatal, with about 2-in-1,000 succumbing to the illness. Of all measles cases in the U.S., 70 percent of them are children according to the Academy of Pediatrics. Measles typically resembles the flu with a running nose, cough fever, and a telltale rash. Three people died from measles in 2025, including two children in Texas, the CDC reported. Those three are the only confirmned deaths in the 2000s from measles in the U.S., although the CDC reports globally about 1.4 million people die from the infection each year.
There is no cure for the disease, which can also cause hearing impairments and immune problems even years down the road, Maniar said.
“In a way, measles has become a victim of its own success,” Dionne said. “For so many years, there have been so few cases in the U.S. that most people hadn’t seen its ill effects, including death.”
Editor’s Picks
The CDC reported on Friday, August 14 that the number of confirmed measles infections in the U.S. hit 2,566 confirmed infections so far in 2026, surpassing 1992, with 2,126 cases. In 1991 there were 9,643 cases, prompting updated federal guidelines on vaccinations.
Experts say the reality is because of how many children will soon be gathered at schools.
“The virus can hang in the air for hours,” Maniar said.
“They cough, sneeze, touch their noses” and then touch desks or doorknobs, said Manair. “If you’re not protected, you’re at 90 percent risk to catch it.”
While exemptions over required laws for children entering schools are typically made for medical or religious reasons, states such as Florida, South Carolina and Utah allow for a parents’ preference, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“Before, it was largely just exemptions for religious or medical reasons,” said Northeastern’s Brandon Dionne, an associate clinical professor in the department of pharmacy and health systems sciences. “Now, more and more, states are giving exemptions just because the parents want it.”
Northeastern Global News, in your inbox.
Sign up for NGN’s daily newsletter for news, discovery and analysis from around the world.
Dionne said that in recent years skepticism and misinformation over the safety of vaccines have become more widespread, including by public figures. Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for instance, has questioned vaccines and their possible connections to autism, theories that Dionne says have long been discredited.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which represents more than 67,000 pediatricians, launched a campaign last year to combat vaccine misinformation with a goal of increasing the kindergarten immunization rate, the organization said on its website. The AAP also is in the midst of a lawsuit against the federal administration over its vaccine policies.
“Pediatricians stand ready to cut through the chaos and talk with families about vaccines,” the AAP said in a recent release. “We know that when parents have access to accurate information and empathetic conversations with their pediatricians, they tend to choose to vaccinate.”
