Florida reported 141 confirmed cases of measles so far in 2026, making it the fifth state with the highest number of infections in the country, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of July 23.
The increase is alarming when compared to previous years: Florida recorded only eight cases throughout 2025 and 11 in 2024, making the rise to 141 an almost 18-fold increase in just one year, according to the report from News4JAX.
Only four states surpass Florida in the 2026 count: South Carolina with 670 cases, Utah with 522, Texas with 188, and Virginia with 176.
Pennsylvania, with 134 cases, and Arizona, with 108, fall below Florida.
The national situation is equally serious: as of July 23, there were 2,318 confirmed cases across the country, a number that already surpasses the 2,289 recorded throughout the entire year of 2025, shaping up to be the worst year for measles in decades.
Florida is one of the 45 jurisdictions reporting cases in 2026, along with 16 additional infections detected among international visitors.
The epicenter of the outbreak in the state was Collier County, specifically at Ave Maria University, a small Catholic institution in the eastern part of the county, where the first cases were identified in late January 2026.
By February 4, there were already 12 infected students; one week later, the number rose to 20, with another 14 cases awaiting results.
By March 21, Collier accounted for 104 of the 143 state cases, representing 73% of the total in Florida, with the majority of those affected being young people aged 15 to 24.
Nationwide, 93% of the cases in 2026 —2,153 out of 2,318— are linked to outbreaks, and 35 new outbreaks have been reported so far this year, compared to 48 in all of 2025 and 16 in 2024.
One of the factors explaining the magnitude of the increase is the sustained decline in vaccination coverage: in Florida, only 88.1% of preschool children had received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR), well below the 95% threshold necessary to ensure herd immunity.
At the national level, this coverage among preschool children fell from 95.2% in the 2019-2020 school year to 92.5% in 2024-2025, leaving approximately 286,000 children unprotected, according to the CDC.
93% of the cases in 2026 involve unvaccinated individuals or those with an unknown vaccination status, a pattern that also repeated itself in 2025.
Regarding clinical severity, in 2026 there have been 151 hospitalizations and no deaths from measles nationwide, a figure that contrasts with the three deaths—two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico—resulting from the 2025 outbreak.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 thanks to decades of mass vaccination with the MMR vaccine, but the sustained decrease in immunization and the increase in global virus activity have quickly reversed that achievement.
Health authorities warn that measles is one of the most contagious diseases known and highlight vaccination as the most effective tool to curb its spread, recommended for both children and unvaccinated adults.
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