US faces losing measles elimination status next week as experts blame RFK Jr. for muted vaccine response

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International health experts are meeting to assess whether the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles elimination status

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Health experts meeting this week are expected to confirm that measles has officially returned to the United States and Mexico, ending one of each country's greatest public health victories.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) convened the meeting to examine whether the virus is now spreading continually within the nations' borders. Measles is among the most contagious diseases known to medicine, yet vaccines have safely stopped the virus's spread in the U.S. for 30 years. Over those decades, the disease became a medical rarity in the U.S., with deaths from it virtually unheard of.

The past two years have changed that picture, as large outbreaks have hit multiple states and spawned thousands of illnesses, including about a dozen deaths. “It’s a big deal. The decision represents us moving backward,” said Dr. David Margolius, director of Cleveland's health department and a leader in a coalition of big U.S. city health departments.

The deliberations are taking place behind closed doors, where a PAHO advisory commission is poring over genetic evidence to determine whether the same measles virus has been spreading for at least one year in the outbreaks that have torn through North America since 2024. “It’s solely based on genetics,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor in the Pittsburgh area and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

If the commission finds that it has, it will say the country can no longer be considered to have “eliminated” measles, meaning the virus has returned to sustained circulation. Canada has already lost its own designation, which PAHO stripped last year after the country had held it since 1998. The commission will present its determination to PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, a former Brazilian health official, who makes the final determination.

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