Three months into 2025, U.S. measles cases surpass total for 2024

Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma are facing a large outbreak of measles. (Annie Rice/Reuters via CNN Newsource)

Three months into 2025, the United States has surpassed the total number of measles cases in the country for all of last year.

The high number of cases is driven by a multistate outbreak that has reached nearly 300 cases. As of Friday, Texas has reported 259 cases this year, New Mexico has tallied 35 cases and Oklahoma reported two. Experts say this is probably a severe undercount.

In 2024, there were 285 total measles cases reported in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A CNN tally suggests that there have been at least 318 cases so far in 2025, including 296 associated with the multistate outbreak.

“As I’m seeing this outbreak unfold, it brings me back to the year 2000 when the United States declared that measles was eradicated from our country,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“The split screen of what’s happening now and the fact that it was deemed to be eradicated 25 years ago, I think highlights the deterioration of proven preventative measures,” he said. “And the current outbreak might be larger than we currently realize.”

In the years since measles was declared eliminated in the U.S., there have been an average of about 179 cases reported each year. There have been an average of about eight outbreaks per year – ranging from one to 25 annually – and most years at least 60 percent of all reported cases have been tied to outbreaks. But the worst outbreaks each year typically stay under 50 cases.

2025 is only the fifth year since 2000 that an outbreak has led to more than 100 cases and only the third year that an outbreak has led to more than 200 cases. The others were 2014, when there was an outbreak tied to Disneyland, and 2019, when a nearly year-long outbreak in New York came within weeks of ending elimination status in the U.S..

In the current outbreak, 36 patients have been hospitalized, six more than previously reported. Ninety-one cases are among children ages 0 to 4 and 125 are among people ages 5 to 17. In Texas two hundred and fifty-seven cases — all but two — are in people who are unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status. In New Mexico, 33 of 35 cases are in those who were unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status.

Measles cases have been identified in 11 Texas counties and two New Mexico counties. In Texas, more than two-thirds of the cases are in Gaines County, where the outbreak was first identified. In New Mexico, most cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County.

Last month, Texas announced the outbreak’s first death: a school-age child who was not vaccinated and had no underlying conditions. Health officials in New Mexico said last week that they are investigating the cause of death of an unvaccinated person who tested positive for measles. The Lea County resident had not sought out health care.

Article written by Neha Mukherjee and Deidre McPhillips, CNN

CNN’s Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.