At least 21 U.S. states have confirmed cases of measles as outbreaks continue spread across the country.

At Ave Maria University near Naples, Florida, measles cases have soared to nearly 60. A sophomore at the school, who is unvaccinated, told CBS News he developed symptoms before he tested positive.

“Honestly, at first, it … kind of felt like a head cold,” the student said. “I started to get a little rash and then like I started to get a sore throat, a cough.”

At a clinic across the street from campus, Dr. Raul Enad said he’s treated two measles patients – a student and a professor, both of whom were vaccinated.

“The professor, she was in contact with a student who had a severe illness, severe manifestation,” Enad said. “She would have been more sick if she had not been vaccinated.”

In a statement on its website, the university said that its “ongoing priority remains the health, safety and well-being of every member of our campus community.”

Surging cases across U.S.

The U.S. is now at risk of losing its measles-elimination status for the first time in more than two decades.

“It’s just the cost of doing business with our borders being somewhat porous for global and international travel,” principal deputy director at the CDC, Ralph Abraham, said last month. “We have these communities that choose to be unvaccinated. That’s their personal freedom.”

CBS News has tracked more than 1,000 confirmed cases nationwide in 2026, which is approximately half of what was recorded in all of 2025.

Three years ago at this time, there were only two cases of the highly contagious virus, according to the CDC.

South Carolina continues to have the largest outbreak with more than 900 cases since September.

The CDC recommends children receive their first dose of the MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months.

“I think it’s a good reminder that kids should get the measles shot,” FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said. “We put out, the administration, what we consider core essential vaccines, measles is one of them.”

Symptoms of measles

According to the CDC, measles symptoms “appear 7 to 14 days after contact with the virus.”

Symptoms may include:

• High fever (may spike to more than 104° F)
• Cough
• Runny nose (coryza)
• Red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis)
• Rash

In some cases, serious complications can develop, including pneumonia or encephalitis, a swelling of the brain. 

Kelsie Hoffman

contributed to this report.

In:

Johannesburg — After the world was caught largely unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists warned that lessons must be learned. Now, two more viral outbreaks are giving health officials sleepless nights.

Rwanda is still grappling with its first outbreak of Marburg virus. A cousin to the Ebola virus, Marburg is one of the deadliest viruses known to science, with a fatality rate of about 88%. According to Rwandan Health Minister Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, there have been 62 cases of Marburg confirmed in Rwanda, with 38 recoveries and 15 deaths.

“Nine people remain in treatment, with most of them improving,” Nsanzimana said during a virtual media briefing on Thursday.

The outbreak was declared on Sept. 27, after health officials realized the treatment they were administering to people with suspected malaria cases wasn’t working. By then, some health officials had been infected, Nsanzimana said.

Nsanzimana said Thursday that Rwanda’s Marburg response had improved. 

“We are seeing a positive trend. This is the 3rd week new infections have reduced by more than 50% compared to the first two weeks, and in consecutive days this week we have had no new detections,” he said, adding: “In the past seven days, people recovering from treatment centers are now outnumbering people who die from the virus.” 

There are currently no licensed vaccines or treatments for Marburg, but several vaccines are in early-stage clinical trials. The Washington D.C.-based, non-profit Sabin Vaccine Institute has delivered 1,800 doses of its single-dose clinical trial vaccine to Rwanda.  

To date, 856 people in high-risk groups, including close contacts of known cases and health care workers, have been given one of those doses.

U.S. enhanced screening measures take effect

Under new measures announced last week, all travelers due to arrive in the U.S. from Oct. 15 onward, within 21 days of being in Rwanda, must ensure they fly directly into New York’s John F. Kennedy, Chicago O’Hare or Washington-Dulles International airports for immediate enhanced health screening.

“The risk of Marburg in the U.S. remains low, however, these measures are being taken out of an abundance of caution given the ongoing outbreak in Rwanda,” CDC spokesperson David Daigle said as the measures were announced on Oct. 7.

Passengers with recent travel history to Rwanda will have their temperatures checked upon arrival at one of the three designated U.S. airports and should expect to answer questions about symptoms and potential exposure to the virus in areas set aside for the screenings. 

The CDC said passengers who clear the checks but then experience fever, chills, headaches or other symptoms commonly associated with the disease should immediately isolate themselves from others and seek medical attention, ideally advising the health care facility in advance of their circumstances.

The Rwandan Health Minister said teams were working to trace the routes of infection in the country and that health workers had implemented “testing for all travelers both at Kigali International Airport and all land borders to make sure we protect everyone in Rwanda and beyond, as this virus has to be contained quickly to avoid going out of control.”

Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever is spread through contact with body fluids — saliva, semen, urine and sweat. The fact that it requires that close proximity to spread does make it easier to contain once detected. The virus is not airborne. Initially, it presents like many other viruses, with common symptoms including headache and fever. If untreated, that can turn into nausea, diarrhea and bleeding from their gums, nose and other orifices.

The Marburg and Ebola viruses are typically found in fruit bats. They can be passed on to humans by a bite, or by people eating infected bats.

Nsanzimana said once Rwanda had cleared its current cases and seen no deaths for several days, it would be able to take a step back and help with research to avoid future outbreaks. 

“We won’t drop our weapons as this is an alert,” he said. “What happened with Marburg in Rwanda, can happen anytime to anywhere in the world.”

Why deadly outbreaks are becoming more common

CBS News traveled with researchers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo just before the COVID outbreak, and the scientists said deforestation and climate change were increasing the amount of human-to-animal contact, which was in turn increasing the number of deadly virus outbreaks in human populations.  

Marburg and Ebola used to pop up rarely, with outbreaks occurring about once per decade. Last year alone, Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania both dealt with Marburg outbreaks, as well as Ghana in 2022.

A Marburg outbreak can be declared over if there are no new cases reported for a period of at least 21 days — the incubation period of the virus, according to Africa CDC Director General Dr. Jean Kaseya.

In addition to the vaccines undergoing trials, Rwandan doctors have also been testing the antiviral drug Remdesivir, to see if it works as a treatment for Marburg. 

Mpox continues spreading in Africa

While Marburg is certainly the most concerning virus facing African health officials at the moment, another disease has continued spreading quietly on the continent.

Over the past week, both Zambia and Zimbabwe reported their first cases of the mpox virus, previously known as monkeypox. 

The World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency in August for the second time in two years.

Health officials in the 17 countries where cases had already been confirmed are increasingly concerned about a new variant called Clade 1b, which is believed to spread more easily through close personal contact than previous strains.

“Mpox is going out of control,” Kaseya of the Africa CDC warned Thursday. “If we don’t act, a lot more than the current 1,100 people who have died, will be dead.”

So far, more than 900 African people, mainly children, have died of mpox this year, with the Democratic Republic of Congo being the current epicenter of the outbreak. Mpox has plagued Congo and its neighboring countries for several decades, but Kaseye said the overall caseload was up 380% compared to 2023, “which is huge.”

Scientists say the precipitous rise in cases is due largely to the new variant. That strain has not yet appeared in the U.S., but experts say it’s likely just a matter of time.

Kaseya said the Africa CDC needed roughly 10 million doses and $600 million to contain the outbreak, but African officials say a surge in the price of mpox vaccine and hoarding by rich, developed nations has delayed the response and allowed the virus to spread.  

“We are still talking about pledges made [by the international community], and we hope to finalize pledges into concrete money, tools and vaccines for our countries,” Kaseya said during the briefing with Nsanzimana and other officials.

Health officials in Congo also delayed asking for help as the vaccine had not undergone African trials or been endorsed, at the time, by the WHO. 

Kaseya said there were 42,238 reported mpox cases across the continent, 8,113 of which had been confirmed. Over the last week alone, 50 deaths and 3,051 new cases were reported.

Mpox is related to smallpox, and long-approved smallpox vaccines could have provided some protection to children, had their administration not been halted after the WHO deemed the disease to no longer pose a public health threat in the late 1970s. 

DR Congo and other countries stopped administering the vaccines early in the following decade. Scientists believe the lack of built up immunity is one of the main reasons the current outbreak is hitting children so hard, with the most cases and the highest numbers of deaths.

With Zambia and Zimbabwe reporting their first cases in recent days, 18 countries now have mpox outbreaks. 

Uganda reported two new cases, meanwhile, in a prison where staff initially thought inmates had chicken pox, until tests confirmed it was mpox. That has made all 1,874 inmates at the facility possible close contacts.

“Prisons, and IDP [internally displaced people] camps in eastern DRC, present a major challenge”, said Kaseya, warning that “countries need a vaccination plan immediately.”

DR Congo and Rwanda have already begun administering vaccines, and Nigeria plans to start on October 22.

“We don’t want to see all African countries being affected,” said Kaseya, calling on the world to “intensify its efforts.”

New Delhi — As a string of recent bird flu cases in U.S. cattle and poultry in several states draws warnings about the risks of possible widespread transmission to humans, India has had its second-ever human avian influenza infection confirmed by the World Health Organization. The U.N. health agency confirmed that a suspected case, a 4-year-old child in the eastern state of West Bengal, was infected with the H9N2 avian flu virus.

India’s first human avian flu case was confirmed in 2019. The cases in India involve a different bird flu virus than the one infecting animals and several people in the U.S., where it is the H5N1 strain spreading through herds.

The 4-year-old Indian child was first diagnosed with hyperreactive airway disease, but he developed a fever and abdominal pain in the last week of January this year. A few days later, he developed seizures and his respiratory distress continued. The fever got worse along with the abdominal cramps, and the child was admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit.

The hospital diagnosed him with post-infectious bronchiolitis caused by viral pneumonia, and he later tested positive for influenza B and adenovirus, for which he underwent treatment for about a month before being discharged on February 28, the WHO said.

His condition did not improve at home, however, and he was admitted to a different hospital on March 3. Nasal swabs confirmed an influenza infection, which the WHO has now confirmed as influenza-A sub-type H9N2, the avian flu.

The patient was discharged from the hospital, with ongoing oxygen support, on May 1.

WHO said the child had exposure to poultry at and around his home, and it warned that “further sporadic human cases could occur as this virus is one of the most prevalent avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry in different regions.”

The Indian government has formed teams of public health officials to monitor flu symptoms in poultry flocks and increase awareness of the disease’s symptoms and prevention methods.

India has witnessed several avian flu outbreaks since 2006, when the first case was detected.

The WHO says humans can be infected with the virus if they come in direct — and in some cases indirect — contact with infected animals. Symptoms of human infection range from mild, flu-like symptoms and eye irritation to severe, acute respiratory disease and even death, the WHO says.

The U.N.’s global health agency has urged people to “minimize contact with animals” where infections are suspected, avoid contact with any surfaces that appear to be contaminated with animal feces, and to “strictly avoid contact with sick or dead animals” and practice hand hygiene.

Children, older people and pregnant and postpartum women need to be extra cautious, the WHO says.

At least 125 measles cases have been reported across 17 states so far this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, up from 121 cases last week.

More cases have now been reported this year than in all of 2022, the most recent annual peak of measles infections. Cases of measles had surged that year from outbreaks linked to unvaccinated Afghan refugees.  

Illinois remains the state with by far the largest number of measles cases this year, after a large outbreak at a Chicago migrant shelter that the city’s health department now says has slowed significantly in the wake of a major vaccination push. 

Massimo Pacilli, a deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Public Health,  acknowledged CDC reports of higher rates of fully vaccinated people catching measles during the outbreak, which he chalked up to intense spread of the virus within the densely packed shelter.

“In this setting, we’re observing continuing protracted exposures. And so it is not completely unexpected to see a higher proportion of individuals who may have had a dose end up being infected with measles,” said Pacilli.

The CDC said last week that the ongoing “importations” of the virus through unvaccinated international travelers now poses a “renewed threat” to the U.S. status of having eliminated local spread of the virus, which it officially achieved in 2000. 

Officials last said in 2019 they feared the U.S. could lose its elimination status. That year, monthslong outbreaks of the virus among unvaccinated communities in New York drove the annual total to a record 1,274 cases — the most since the 1990s.

CDC officials so far do not expect this year to match 2019’s record case totals, while acknowledging the growing risk of outbreaks.

The agency’s disease forecasters estimated on April 4 that the U.S. would likely reach 300 measles cases this year, above most recent years.

“It’s important to remember that the overall measles outbreak risk to the general population is low; however, measles cases are increasing globally, increasing the chance of importations into the U.S. and subsequent risk of outbreaks, particularly in communities with low vaccination rates,” the agency’s forecasters wrote.

The country’s largest egg producer is dealing with a bird flu outbreak. This comes as six states are reporting outbreaks of avian flu among dairy cows.

Measles were eradicated in the United States decades ago, but decreased vaccination rates have threatened the country’s herd immunity against the disease. New outbreaks have been reported, including nine cases in Philadelphia that affected a hospital and a day care center. Stephen Stock reports.

Health officials in Ohio and Massachusetts are warning of troubling spikes in the number of children getting pneumonia. The children are getting fevers in addition to a cough. CBS News’ Meg Oliver has the latest on what parents need to know.

The number of countries battling disruptive outbreaks of measles surged to 37 last year, a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Thursday, as officials warn that the global fight against the disease has struggled to recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Measles can be deadly, especially in children, but it is preventable with a common vaccine.

This marks a 68% increase from 2021, when 22 countries were reporting large outbreaks, according to the new data in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Four regions had large outbreaks, mostly in Africa or the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Measles is one of the most contagious airborne diseases known to infect humans. Up to 9 in 10 people without immunity will get infected after being exposed, the CDC says, with infectious virus lingering in the air for up to two hours. 

Measles can result in hospitalizations, deaths or an array of complications like blindness or brain damage.

An estimated 9,232,300 people worldwide were infected and 136,200 died from measles last year, the report’s authors said. While this figure remains far lower than the more than 36 million cases estimated worldwide in 2000, it is more than a million infections larger than 2021’s tally. 

“It’s really the accumulation of people who haven’t been vaccinated against measles. The COVID-19 pandemic added an enormous amount of strain to health systems that were already struggling to deliver routine immunizations,” said the CDC’s Cynthia Hatcher in an interview. Hatcher is head of the agency’s measles elimination team for the African region.

Just 81% of people worldwide are now estimated to have received the first dose of a measles vaccine, down from 86% in 2019. In low-income countries, vaccination coverage has plummeted from 71% in 2019 to 66% in 2022.

Hatcher spoke with CBS News from the sidelines of a World Health Organization meeting about meningitis, measles, rubella, yellow fever and tetanus in the Republic of Congo’s capital Brazzaville.

“Being in this room, listening to countries about how many vaccine preventable diseases they’re grappling with all at the same time, it’s clear that while the pandemic may largely be over, systems have not fully recovered,” said Hatcher.

Last year’s sum of cases is approaching the 9,828,400 infections estimated in 2019. That year had marked a global resurgence of the virus to some of the highest levels in years, reversing decades of efforts to stomp out transmission.

Hatcher said changes in precautions and travel during the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to the temporary dip in cases during 2020. The massive surge in 2019 could also have temporarily blunted transmission, Hatcher said.

“A lot of people, children particularly, were exposed to measles virus, would see a level of immunity because of infection. This is obviously not what we want, because of the risk of complications and death that comes from infection,” she said.

Now as cases mount, officials worry that the increase in measles could foreshadow other mounting issues stemming from gaps caused by the pandemic.

“When we’re talking about measles, we’re talking about a vaccine that should be delivered by the routine health system,” Hatcher said, describing the uptick as a “canary in the coal mine.”

“We also have to realize that these health systems are likely not delivering other essential health services,” she said.

Measles in the U.S. last year

The global climb in measles cases comes as health officials have worked to reverse a yearslong decline in routine immunizations within the U.S.

Vaccination exemptions have reached the highest on record nationwide among kindergartners, the CDC reported, translating to an estimated 250,000 kindergarten children at risk of measles infection during the last school year.

The vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella used in the U.S. — known as the MMR vaccine — is estimated to be 93% effective after one dose and 97% effective after two doses, the CDC says. 

The CDC’s tally of reported measles cases within the U.S. climbed from 49 in 2021 to 121 in 2022. Forty-one cases have been reported so far in 2023.

Officials had also warned ahead of this past summer of a potential resurgence in cases, as travel rebounded in the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic. A large outbreak in American Samoa shuttered schools there earlier this year.

“There were several measles outbreaks last year, and they were all tied back to importations from countries that were experiencing outbreaks,” Hatcher said.

Cases remain lower than the previous peak in 2019, which had ranked as one of the largest outbreaks within the U.S. since the virus was declared “eliminated” from the country in 2000.

Hatcher said 2019’s increase within the U.S. was linked to outbreaks abroad, combined with the virus spreading into a large group that had been unvaccinated.

“In all it took was one exposure for it to really spread throughout that entire community,” she said.

Cape Town, South Africa — South Africa has culled about 7.5 million chickens in an effort to contain dozens of outbreaks of two separate strains of avian influenza that threaten to create a shortage of eggs and poultry for consumers, the government and national poultry association said Tuesday. At least 205,000 chickens have died from bird flu in at least 60 separate outbreaks across the country, with more than half of those outbreaks in Gauteng province, which includes the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria.

Some grocery stores in Johannesburg were limiting the number of eggs customers were allowed to buy this week — in some cases to one carton of six eggs — and the government acknowledged there were “supply constraints.”

The government announced approximately 2.5 million chickens bred for their meat had been culled. The South African Poultry Association said another 5 million egg-laying chickens had been culled. The 7.5 million birds represented about 20-30% of South Africa’s total chicken stock, South African Poultry Association general manager Izaak Breitenbach said.

The government was moving to fast-track new import permits for companies to bring in eggs from other countries “to ensure sufficient supplies for consumers,” Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza said. Her ministry is also considering embarking on a vaccination program to halt the bird flu outbreaks and said the number of farms with cases was increasing.

Neighboring Namibia has banned chicken meat and egg imports from South Africa.

The outbreaks are hitting an industry already struggling due to an electricity crisis. Breitenbach said South Africa has had three major bird flu outbreaks in recent years, and the latest ones were “by far the worst,” already costing the industry losses of at least $25 million.

Vaccines would need to be imported and hopefully be ready to use in two to six months, he said.

Wilhelm Mare, chairman of the poultry group in the South African Veterinary Association, said as many as 8.5 million egg-laying chickens could be affected and more than 10 million birds overall.

“It tells me we’re going to have problems with this situation for quite a while,” Mare said, calling it “catastrophic” for the industry.

The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that bird flu outbreaks were on the rise globally, with more than 21,000 outbreaks across the world between 2013 and 2022, but the CDC notes on its website only one human infection during 2022, and assesses the general risk to public health from the disease as “low.”

The U.S. grappled with similar circumstances to South Africa in 2022, with bird flu contributing to soaring egg prices nationwide.

Eggs are an important and affordable source of protein in South Africa, but prices have risen steadily this year and the shortages caused by bird flu were expected to push prices up again and add to high food inflation for South Africans.

The chicken industry in South Africa has already been hit hard this year by power shortages, which have resulted in planned regular electricity blackouts to save energy, but badly impacting businesses.

South African farmers said in January they had been forced to cull nearly 10 million young chicks, as Africa’s most advanced economy experienced record blackouts at the start of the year, causing production to slow dramatically and leading to overcrowding on chicken farms.

The poultry industry has also lobbied the South African government to impose permanent duties on countries like Brazil, Denmark, Poland, Spain, and the United States for what the industry refers to as the “dumping” of cheap chicken products in South Africa, threatening local businesses.