With 29 newly confirmed cases, the theUS measles total is just 29 cases short of last year’s sobering total, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update today.

The CDC announced 2,260 confirmed cases so far in 2026, all but 15 of them locally acquired. The total for all of last year was 2,289 infections, which was the most since 1991. The country could lose its measles elimination status this fall, which it gained in 2000.

Of the 2,260 cases for the year, 20% of infections are in children age 5 and under, and 70% involve kids and young adults to age 19. Six percent of patients have been hospitalized, compared with 10% in 2025. Among all measles patients, 93% are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccine status. 

No measles deaths have been reported this year, compared with three in 2025.

Utah’s total reaches 510

Pennsylvania confirmed eight new measles cases this week, and 109 total. Utah, the state with the largest active outbreak, lists three new cases, for a 2026 total of 510. The CDC measles map, however, shows 110 cases in Pennsylvania and 518 in Utah. In promising news, Virginia reported no new cases this week, after notching 22 new cases last week, 177 total.

Idaho this week recorded on new case, raising its 2026 total to 24.

American citizens will no longer be allowed to fly directly to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) under new federal restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of Ebola. 

Until now, only non-citizens were prohibited from entering the US directly from the DRC. The new ‘Do Not Board’ policy, which is being put together by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security, requires US citizens who have been in the DRC within the previous 21 days and “certain travelers” from Uganda and South Sudan to quarantine in a third country before entering the United States. The CDC announced the new restriction July 15.

The move comes as the DRC battles the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history. As of today, the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has sickened at least 2,124 people in the DRC and killed 828.

7 US aid workers quarantining in Kenya

The first Americans affected by the policy are seven aid workers who had been in DRC helping respond to the outbreak. The workers, none of whom is having symptoms, are now quarantining at an isolation facility in Kenya. 

The decision [to quarantine US aid workers in Kenya] was made ‘strictly out of an abundance of caution.’

The workers “voluntarily moved to the Kenya facility for precautionary monitoring and isolation,” a US State Department official told Reuters, noting that the decision was made “strictly out of an abundance of caution.”

The 50-bed facility, which is being built on an air force base in Kenya, is at the center of legal challenges and public protests by Kenyans who have questioned the decision to house potentially infected people in their country.