At least 588 US measles cases reported in January: CDC
Signs point the way to measles testing in the parking lot of the Seminole Hospital District across from Wigwam Stadium on February 27, 2025 in Seminole, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — At least 588 measles cases have been confirmed so far this year across the U.S., according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This means the U.S. has seen more cases in about one month than is typically recorded in an entire year.
Only nine other years, including last year, have had higher case counts since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.
The high case counts in 2026 are largely being driven by a measles outbreak in South Carolina.
At least 17 states have also reported measles cases this year including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Almost all cases are tied to ongoing outbreaks in pockets of undervaccinated or unvaccinated communities. Just three measles cases were reported among international travelers so far this year, according to CDC data.
Last year, the U.S. saw a record-breaking number of measles cases reported with 2,257 infections, the highest figure recorded since 1992. The U.S. could be on pace to surpass that record if cases continue to mount at this rate.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
However, federal data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years. During the 2024-2025 school year, 92.5% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 92.7% seen in the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019-2020 school year, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national trends mirror those see in counties across the U.S. A recent map from ABC News — a collaboration with researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai that allows people to type in their ZIP code and see the measles risk in their area — found a wide range of risks in areas across the U.S.
Some counties and ZIP codes fell into the “lowest risk,” with 85% or more of children under 5 years old receiving one or more measles vaccine dose to “very high risk” with fewer than 60% of children under age 5 receiving one or more measles vaccine dose.
A hantavirus is a virus found in the urine, saliva or excrement of deer mice and certain other infected wild rodents (Icy Macload/Getty Images)
(LONDON and BELGRADE, Serbia) — Three people have been evacuated off of the MV Hondius, a cruise ship with a suspected hantavirus cluster, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
WHO officials in Cape Verde told ABC News that the patients were to be transferred to ambulances waiting on the shore to receive them. The three were then to be taken to an airport, where they were expected to board a special medevac flight to the Netherlands.
“WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, said on social media, where he confirmed the evacuations.
“Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities,” he added.
He said that “the overall public health risk remains low.”
The WHO said on Wednesday that eight suspected cases of hantavirus were recorded among passengers on the ship, an increase from the seven reported on Tuesday. Three of the cases had been confirmed by lab testing, WHO said.
“Swiss authorities have confirmed a case of hantavirus identified in a passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship,” the WHO said on social media on Wednesday. “He had responded to an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event, and presented himself to a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, and is receiving care.”
There have been three deaths among the reported cases, including a married couple from the Netherlands, one of whom was confirmed to have been infected with hantavirus, authorities said.
Cape Verde officials said on Tuesday that the vessel was expected to sail to the Spanish island of Tenerife, where Spanish health authorities were to take over further investigations, including lab testing and clinical assessments, particularly for older passengers.
The leader of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa, said on Wednesday that the regional government was opposed to allowing the luxury cruise ship to dock at Tenerife.
“This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands told radio station COPE, according to Reuters.
Clavijo said on social media that he had requested a meeting with the Spanish prime minister to discuss the ship. He added that the Canary Islands “always acts with responsibility, but it cannot accept decisions taken behind the backs of the Canary Islands institutions and without sufficient information to the population.”
WHO officials earlier on Wednesday said the three evacuated people were to be transferred to planes bound for both the Netherlands and Tenerife, but later updated the plan so that all would be sent to the Netherlands, officials told ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Robert Kennedy Jr. appears before the Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on September 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heads to Capitol Hill Thursday after restoring staffing at the World Trade Center Health Program, a move that could ease one of the most persistent points of bipartisan criticism he has faced for months.
Program advocates and lawmakers said they received an email from the secretary on Wednesday approving hiring for 37 long-vacant positions. This will raise staffing from its current 83 employees to the federally authorized level of 120.
The move comes after nearly a year of bipartisan criticism that staffing shortages were slowing care for the 140,000 responders and survivors the program serves, many of whom have been diagnosed with cancer, respiratory disease and other conditions tied to exposure to toxins after the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, Shanksville, Penn., and Washington, D.C.
The World Trade Center Health Program was created as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to provide long-term medical monitoring and treatment to those affected by the attacks. For more than a year, the program has operated far below capacity with about 83 staff members, following a period of upheaval that included firings, rehires and shifting leadership, even as the participant population grew by nearly 30,000 new enrollees.
Advocates say the reduced staffing has had real consequences, including slower approval of survivors into the program, delays in managing contractors, and longer wait times for care.
“This is progress,” Benjamin Chevat, executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, told ABC News. He credited the progress to sustained pressure from lawmakers in both parties and their consistent support of the program.
Lawmakers also have welcomed the end of the hiring freeze.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., told ABC News that the approval for the additional staff would “directly support the responders and survivors who rely on this care every day,” and that “more staff means better access to care, shorter wait times, and stronger support for those still living with the health impacts” of the attacks.
He called the move “real progress for the 9/11 community” and said it is “about making sure those who answered the call on September 11th get the care they have earned.”
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., also welcomed the news but criticized the delays. “I am encouraged that, after repeated demands from me and from other members of Congress, Secretary Kennedy is finally increasing staffing at the World Trade Center Health Program so that our brave survivors and first responders can receive the quality health care they deserve,” Goldman told ABC News.
“The ongoing staffing shortages under this administration are unacceptable and have been undermining the program’s ability to provide timely and quality care to the enrollees,” Goldman added. “I will be watching closely to ensure that new staffers are hired as quickly as possible and that our heroes receive the quality healthcare they were promised and deserve.”
At a senate hearing last May, Kennedy acknowledged that “we made a couple of mistakes” in firing program staff and promised to address them.
“Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, the World Trade Center Health Program continues to move forward and deliver for responders and survivors,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News in response to a request for comment. “The approval of these positions reflects HHS’ commitment to strengthening the program. The petition reviews are proceeding through established processes, and work is actively underway to advance pending petitions. Protecting the health and well-being of those affected by 9/11 remains a top priority.”
Chevat pointed out the timing of the decision, which comes as Kennedy prepared to face lawmakers at Thursday’s public hearing: “Now a year later he is finally letting the program fill the staff vacancies that the program was blocked from filling.”
In a previous statement to ABC News, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said decisions about the program, including staffing and whether to add new health conditions to be covered under the program, rest with the World Trade Center Health Program administrator, not Secretary Kennedy.
Even with the staffing issue moving toward resolution, significant concerns for the program remain, Chevat said. They include key decisions about expanding coverage for additional conditions including autoimmune, cardiac, and cognitive disorders are still pending – for years, in some cases.
Those decisions ultimately require sign-off within HHS, under Kennedy’s direction, according to Chevat. Until that happens, patients with those conditions don’t qualify for full coverage through the program.
Research funding for the program also remains stalled, according to Chevat. Its annual grant cycle, which typically distributes about $20 million for studies on 9/11-related illnesses, is still waiting for approval, despite the understanding that it would begin this past February, he said.
Additionally, communication between the program and the 9/11 community has been sparse under HHS oversight, with fewer updates and less clarity about decision-making, according to Chevat and other 9/11 survivor advocates.
Lawmakers are still likely to ask Kennedy questions about the World Trade Center Health Program during today’s hearings, Chevat said. The research funding budget is also expected to come up during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing next week.
For now, however, the decision to restore program staffing removes one of the most visible and widely criticized problems, Chevat said.
Airport health authorities wearing protective masks monitor passengers from international flights arriving at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, January 25, 2026. Suvarnabhumi Airport Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Several countries, including Thailand and Nepal, have increased their surveillance after cases of the deadly Nipah virus were detected in India.
So far, just two cases have been confirmed among 25-year-old nurses, a woman and a man, in West Bengal, according to the World Health Organization.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News earlier this week that Indian health authorities have deployed an outbreak response team and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in contact with local officials. The CDC said it is “monitoring” the situation.
Despite the virus’s high fatality rate, experts have said it’s very unlikely it will lead to a global emergency.
Here’s what you need to know about the virus, including signs and symptoms, how the virus is transmitted and what treatments are available.
What is Nipah virus?
Nipah virus is a type of zoonotic disease, meaning it’s primarily found in animals and can spread between animals and people.
It was first discovered in 1999 after a disease affected both pigs and people in Malaysia and Singapore, according to the CDC.
The virus is most often spread by fruit bats, and can spread through direct or indirect contact.
The virus can also spread from person to person by being in close contact or coming into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms typically occur between four and 14 days after exposure. The most common symptom is fever followed by headache, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing and vomiting.
Diagnosing the virus in the early stages is often difficult because the symptoms resemble many other illnesses, the CDC has said.
The virus can lead to severe symptoms, including disorientation, drowsiness, seizures or encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. These can progress to a coma within 24 to 48 hours, according to the CDC.
Deaths range anywhere between 40% and 75% among all cases, the federal health agency said. Some permanent changes among survivors have been noted, including persistent convulsions.
What are the treatments available?
Currently there are no specific treatments available for Nipah virus other than managing symptoms with supportive care, including rest and fluids.
Experts said there are treatments currently under development. One is a monoclonal antibody, a treatment that uses immune system proteins manufactured in a lab. They mimic the antibodies the body naturally creates when fighting the virus.
Dr. Diana Finkel, an associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious disease at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, previously told ABC News that the drug has already completed phase I clinical trials and is currently being used on a compassionate basis.
Researchers are also studying the potential benefit of remdesivir — the intravenous medication used to treat COVID-19 — which has been shown to work well in nonhuman primates with Nipah virus.
What is the likelihood of Nipah virus spreading?
Experts said that while anything is possible, it’s very unlikely that cases in India will lead to global spread.
“The world is small, but the likelihood that somebody’s infected, or an infected fruit bat with Nipah virus would be here, right now, is very unlikely,” Finkel previously told ABC News.
She said when people are exposed in health care settings, it’s often because proper standard precautions were not followed, such as not wearing gloves or masks.
Experts have said Nipah virus cases are also a reminder of the potentially devastating effects of habitat destruction and climate change, possibly leading to more interaction between infected animals and humans.
“You have to think about why are fruit bats that harbor this Nipah virus, why are they coming into contact with people?” Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, director of the University of Washington Center for One Health Research, previously told ABC News. “What is changing in terms of the movement of the bat populations? Are they leaving [a] habitat where there were not very many people? Are they now spending more time close to people?”
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
