U.S. measles outbreaks can cost millions

Measles outbreaks aren’t just a public health threat. They can also be a financial burden on the U.S. — and the cost could only deepen as the once-eliminated disease spreads more widely.

The U.S. is expected to lose its official measles elimination status following a review by the Pan American Health Organization this week, after cases ratcheted to recent highs this year.

More than 5,100 measles cases have been reported nationwide in 2026 as of early November, marking the country’s worst outbreak in more than three decades. Eight deaths associated with the disease have been confirmed by states so far in 2026: six in Pennsylvania, one in New York and one in Wisconsin.

Based on this year’s case count, a new tool developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimates an economic cost of nearly $83 million for the outbreaks. That total includes $56 million in public health response costs, almost $25 million in lost productivity and more than $1.8 million in direct medical expenses.

The tool also estimates that 2025 measles outbreaks in the U.S. — which involved 2,289 confirmed cases nationwide – carried an economic cost of more than $37 million.

The costs extend beyond treating people who become sick, accounting for the resources health departments spend investigating and containing outbreaks, as well as wages lost when people have to miss work. The tool uses more recent, state-specific cost and financing data than an initial study by the researchers, which relied on historical outbreak costs. 

The estimates from the tool are not a definitive accounting of what the outbreaks actually cost. But it illustrates the hefty bill tied to the spread of a disease that can be prevented through vaccination, and the potential economic consequences of falling childhood immunization rates. CNBC previously reported on how the return of measles in the U.S. exposes weaknesses in the nation’s public health system that raise concerns about the return of other eliminated diseases. 

“We’re starting to see a whole bunch of people who decided not to get vaccinated as kids or have never gotten exposed to measles because they benefited from herd immunity, who now make it into adulthood and risk potentially getting quite seriously ill and requiring very significant medical expenses, or dying at the hospital,” Bryan Patenaude, a health economist at the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who helped develop the tool, said in an interview. 

The costs of containing measles

Measles outbreaks can trigger a costly public health response, even when many people who are exposed never become sick.

When a case is identified, public health officials must investigate the infection, identify and notify people who may have been exposed, coordinate with hospitals and schools, and sometimes organize vaccination campaigns to prevent further spread. Those efforts can divert staff and resources from other public health…