A national measles surge that will almost certainly make 2026 the worst year in decades for the disease is threatening even well-protected regions, where vaccination rates are high, because of the strain on limited resources, public health leaders from California and Oregon said Tuesday.
The United States has reported 2,260 measles cases this year as of last Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s just 25 cases shy of last year’s total count, which was the worst since the 1990s.
West Coast states have not seen the same massive outbreaks, in part because communities tend to be well vaccinated. But they are still seeing cases. And with school scheduled to resume in about a month in many places, public health officials are urging families to make sure that their children are up to date on immunizations…