The Centers for Disease Control recently warned that declining immunization rates threaten to reverse the U.S.’s successful elimination of measles, especially in areas with gaps in vaccination coverage.

Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, meaning the absence of continuous spread of the disease for more than 12 months. A recent study by Stanford University projects that, if vaccination rates continue to decline by just 10%, the U.S. could see millions of measles cases in the next two decades. Conversely, the study also showed that a 5% increase in state-level vaccination coverage could help avert hundreds of thousands of infections. 

The measles outbreak of 2025 is the largest since 2019, which involved more than 1,274 cases and four deaths across 10 states.  As of April 24, 2025, a total of 884 confirmed measles cases have been reported by 29 states: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. There have been three confirmed deaths. 

The Indiana Department of Health has confirmed eight measles cases so far in 2025, all in Allen County.