Overview
- U.S. health officials asked PAHO to reschedule the special April review to the commission’s regular November meeting, according to an HHS spokesperson.
- PAHO cites ongoing comprehensive virus genome sequencing and development of a bioinformatics pipeline as key reasons for the timing change.
- HHS says the delay does not signal slower progress and will support a thorough, transparent assessment of the 2025 outbreaks.
- The United States has logged more than 1,100 measles cases in the first two months of 2026, putting it on pace to surpass last year’s nearly 2,300 cases.
- Loss of elimination status remains possible if the West Texas–origin outbreak is genomically linked to later transmission, and the verification window still tracks one year from each country’s outbreak start for both the U.S. and Mexico.