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New York declares measles disaster emergency as US cases climb

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a measles disaster emergency on Monday, 5 October 2026, temporarily expanding the ability of health professionals to give measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines as cases of a disease once all but eliminated in the United States keep rising, Al Jazeera reported, citing Reuters and The Associated Press.

108 cases so far this year

“No one should get seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease,” Hochul said in a statement. New York has recorded 108 measles cases this year as of 3 October, seven of them in New York City and 101 elsewhere in the state. The declaration says 92 cases have been recorded since 15 July in a handful of rural communities with insufficient vaccination rates.

The measles disaster emergency remains in effect until 4 November. It is the first such declaration since US measles cases began to tick up in 2025, according to the report.

Pennsylvania passes 1,000 cases

Officials in neighbouring Pennsylvania said the state has passed 1,000 measles cases this year, the largest outbreak in the US in the last three decades. Outbreaks have also been recorded in Texas, Utah, Ohio and South Carolina.

Health experts attribute the resurgence to vaccination rates falling below the 95% level they say is needed to prevent outbreaks. Critics say the decline has been fuelled by an anti-vaccination movement that has gained advocates inside President Donald Trump’s administration, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

US measles-free status under review

The US had eliminated domestic spread of measles by 2000. The last outbreak of more than 1,000 cases took place over several years in New York City in the early 1990s.

Officials from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are due to meet in November to decide whether the US and Mexico keep their measles-free status. PAHO has stressed “the importance of maintaining high and homogeneous vaccination coverage, strengthening epidemiological surveillance, and ensuring timely outbreak response” to halt transmission.

Measles spreads easily through the air and is preventable with two doses of the MMR vaccine. Hochul’s order widens who can give those vaccines while the emergency is in force.

Source: Al Jazeera (with Reuters and AP)

Photo: Cynthia S. Goldsmith, CDC / Wikimedia Commons, public domain (resized)

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