In the years before the introduction of the measles vaccine, the disease infected more than half a million people and killed hundreds of children each year in the United States alone.1 After the approval of the vaccine in the 1960s, these numbers dropped precipitously and in 2000, the World Health Organization declared that measles had officially been eliminated from the country.
But in late January 2025, a measles outbreak erupted in Gaines County, Texas. Within weeks, it had spread across state lines to New Mexico and Oklahoma, sickening nearly 300 people. Two deaths have been reported so far—the first measles deaths in the US in a decade.