South Carolina's measles outbreak passed 993 confirmed cases this week, the state's Department of Public Health page shows — 664 in 2026 alone, atop the 329 carried over from 2025. [1] Utah holds at 405 for 2026 and 602 cumulative; Arizona is at 78, Texas at 180, Washington at 37, North Dakota at 33. Summed against the smaller state counts, the U.S. total now sits at roughly 1,900 confirmed cases across 39 jurisdictions. [2] The CDC's measles-data page has not refreshed past 1,748 in five weeks. [3]

The paper's Friday brief put the holding count at 1,893 and the PAHO regional review at November — six months from Friday. Day three of the same brief acquires its actual divergence: the federal denominator and the state-stringer denominator have separated. CIDRAP's April 17 anchor at 1,748 is the figure the agency still publishes; the South Carolina, Utah and Arizona dashboards have moved past it without a corresponding federal update. [3] The PAHO Regional Verification Commission meets in November to decide whether the United States keeps the elimination status it earned in 2000.

Four of the seven indicators the WHO uses to keep that status are being missed. Three deaths are confirmed — two Texas children, one New Mexico adult. The variable that decides November is the rolling weekly new-case rate, not the cumulative total, and the rolling rate cannot be computed from a page that has not refreshed since mid-April. The chart that decides the verdict is the one the agency stopped updating. [3]

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago