"As public-health officials scramble to contain the virus, they're also trying to figure out whether these two outbreaks are connected-specifically, whether the version of the pathogen that kick-started the West Texas cases has been circulating within the nation's borders ever since. If the answer is yes, it will mean that measles has once again become a permanent resident of this country, after 26 years of only limited outbreaks imported from abroad."
"At this point, researchers are working to find the connective tissue among some of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S. within the past year, including the ones centered in West Texas, Utah, Arizona, and South Carolina. Technically, the epidemics still could have been caused by separate reintroductions of measles from at least one international source. But "that's a hard stretch," Robert Bednarczyk, a global-health researcher and epidemiologist at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, told me."
Measles outbreaks in the United States surged, with a West Texas epidemic sickening at least 762 people and a South Carolina outbreak logging 700 cases. The country recorded more than 2,200 measles cases in 2025, the highest since 1991. Researchers are investigating connections among large outbreaks in West Texas, Utah, Arizona, and South Carolina to determine whether a single virus lineage has circulated domestically since January. The most plausible explanation is sustained domestic spread amplified by travel rather than multiple separate international reintroductions. If sustained transmission is confirmed, international health authorities could revoke the U.S. measles-elimination designation.
Read at The Atlantic
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