US faces loss of measles-free status amid expert review

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Global health experts will determine in the coming days whether the United States has lost its official measles-free status, a public health achievement it has held since 2000.

Global health experts will determine in the coming days whether the United States has lost its official measles-free status, a public health achievement it has held since 2000.

The decision by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) poses a new test for the Trump administration and its top health official, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has for years spread doubts, without scientific evidence, about the safety of measles vaccines.

Public health experts have said his actions as US health secretary to reduce the number of childhood immunisations have increased vaccine hesitancy and fuelled the country's highest infection rate in more than three decades.

PAHO asked all 35 member states in the Americas to submit measles status reports for review by a panel of outside experts.

They will make their recommendations during closed-door deliberations in Washington, where their annual meeting convenes until 13 November.

Mexico and Bolivia are also on the watch list due to prolonged outbreaks, a PAHO spokesperson said yesterday.

PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa will then make the final decision on each country's status and communicate that to the relevant authorities, the spokesperson said.

"It feels really concerning, as though everything is falling apart. The US was held up as a model for a lot of vaccine programs," said Helen Bedford, professor of children's health at University College London, who has advised the UK government on vaccination.

"And it will take a lot of work to reverse that. And it is tragic, because it's children who are going to suffer at the end of the day."

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