The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released its latest report on measles, revealing 935 confirmed cases spread across several states.

That number is now officially more than triple the confirmed cases reported in all of 2024 (285 total), per the CDC.

The CDC’s recent update, issued on Friday, highlights that the actual number of measles cases in the U.S. probably exceeds 935, as the data only includes “confirmed” instances, excluding “probable” ones. According to the CDC, a significant 96% of those affected were either not vaccinated or had uncertain vaccination records.

Texas has reported the highest number of confirmed cases nationwide, with the state’s health department documenting 683 cases as of Friday, predominantly concentrated in Gaines County near the New Mexico border. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported that approximately 450 of these cases involve children under 18 years old. Tragically, two children of school age have succumbed to the disease.

After Texas, New Mexico reported the most cases of any state, at 67. One resident of Lea County, by the Texas border, tested positive for measles after dying earlier this year.

In total, 29 states were home to residents with reported cases of measles in the CDC’s latest update: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

The reason for these recent outbreaks, experts said earlier this year, can likely be traced to declining vaccination rates.

“Measles used to kill, you know, so many children, and we’re starting to see outbreaks again because parents are not getting their kids vaccinated,” Dr. Dale Bratzler, the dean of the University of Oklahoma’s Hudson College of Public Health, told Nexstar’s KFOR.

Amesh Adalja of Johns Hopkins University, speaking with the Agence France-Presse, had also said the Gaines County area in Texas had among the “lowest rates of vaccination in the state” — which he likened to “kindling for such outbreaks.”

Even a vaccination rate of below approximately 95% increases the risk of outbreaks, the World Health Organization warns, because herd immunity is only achieved at that rate.

“When the population rate of vaccination starts to fall below 95%, you’re going to have outbreaks,” Dr. Bratzler said.

The CDC, on its measles webpage, also noted that vaccination coverage among kindergarteners has dipped in the U.S., from 95.2% before the 2019 school year to 92.7% ahead of the 2023 school year.

In a briefing last month, Dr. William Moss, an epidemiology professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said he believes measles will continue to spread as long as susceptible communities exist.

“I like to think of this like a forest fire with sparks spreading out,” Moss said. “If those sparks land in a community with low vaccine coverage, we’re going to see a larger measles outbreak. If it lands in a community with high vaccine coverage, we may only see one or a few cases.”

The best way to avoid transmission remains two doses of a measles or MMR vaccine, according to the CDC, the World Health Organization, and the majority of infectious disease experts.