‘World’s most contagious disease’ on track for highest US cases in 35 years — doc warns: ‘We are allowing it to spread’

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Measles only needs a small opening — and it got one.

For the second year in a row, cases of measles — known as the world’s most infectious disease — will hit record highs, and 2026 is on track to be substantially worse than 2025.

In a matter of weeks, we’re likely to blow past last year’s total, hitting the highest number of cases in 35 years.

“This is a major public health warning sign,” epidemiologist Dr. Syra Madad told The Post. “The US is already close to last year’s total with about half the year still ahead.”

The total number of measles cases for 2025 was 2,288, the highest since a 1991 outbreak that infected 9,500. As of June 25, there have been 2,134 confirmed cases this year in the US.

That means it’ll take just 155 more cases — a number that could be covered fairly quickly — to beat that record, which was hit in December of last year.

“Unless we interrupt transmission quickly, 2026 is likely to surpass 2025 and could do so substantially,” Madad warned.

“We should be cautious about making exact projections because outbreaks can slow when vaccination campaigns, isolation, contact tracing and community engagement are effective. But the current pattern is deeply concerning.

Last week, someone with measles exposed scores of travelers at LAX to the disease. In May, New York city officials alerted diners at an Italian restaurant they might’ve been exposed over the course of three hours.

Measles spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. It can linger in the air even two hours after the person leaves.

Symptoms appear a week or two after a person is exposed. People may experience a high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes. Two to three days later, white spots may appear in the mouth. Three to five days later, a rash will appear. They’re contagious starting four days before the rash and four days after.

There is no cure or antiviral treatment, and two out of every five people with measles end up getting hospitalized. Pneumonia is the most common severe complication from measles.

“This is not simply the return of a childhood rash illness,” Madad said. “Measles can cause pneumonia, encephalitis, hospitalization and death, especially in young children and medically vulnerable people.”

The disease can also introduce a deadly neurological condition that can strike decades after the initial infection.

“The measles is sort of sitting around in your brain and causing, on the cellular level, changes that sit there quietly. And 10, 20-plus years later, they come and destroy your brain,” Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, previously told The Post.

Vaccination is the only way to prevent it, sinc nine out of ten unvaccinated people will get measles if they come in contact with it. Unfortunately, vax rates are declining.

According to the CDC, 93% of cases this year are in people who are unvaccinated or of unknown vaccination status. And over half are kids aged 5 to 19.

And no, this isn’t a result of travel or visitors from the World Cup. Ninety-three percent of cases were acquired here, in an outbreak. “That suggests we are not just importing measles. We are allowing it to spread here,” Madad said.

Measles is spreading across the country, but Utah and South Carolina recorded the most cases. Close behind are Texas, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Utah’s first outbreak was in June 2025 and hasn’t let up since. Statewide, 12.8% of kindergartners were missing their vaccine, putting the state far short of the 95% vaccination rate needed to prevent measles outbreaks.

“Measles only needs a small opening,” Madad said. “Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but elimination is not a permanent trophy. It has to be protected through consistently high vaccination coverage, fast outbreak detection, and strong local public health response.”

If vaccination gaps remain, she stressed, the future could be even bleaker.

“Measles will continue to find susceptible communities next year and beyond,” she said. “That means more outbreaks, more quarantines, more school and childcare disruptions, more strain on already stretched health departments, and a continued risk of severe illness and death from a disease we know how to prevent.

The good news is, the problem is “recoverable.”

“The US achieved elimination before, and it can regain control by restoring high MMR coverage, strengthening surveillance, and responding rapidly to every case,” Madad said.