As North America prepares to welcome millions of international football fans for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, public health officials are sounding a urgent alarm over a sharp, sustained rise in measles cases across the Americas and around the globe. On Tuesday, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) released new epidemiological data highlighting the growing risk of large-scale transmission during the upcoming three-nation tournament, which kicks off June 11 across the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Global figures collected by the World Health Organization underscore the scale of the current outbreak: between January 1 and May 13, 2026, 184,489 suspected measles cases were reported across 155 WHO member states, with more than half — 100,239 cases — confirmed via laboratory testing.
The situation in the Americas is particularly concerning, PAHO reported. Between the first and 20th epidemiological weeks of 2026, 16 countries and one regional territory have confirmed 20,521 measles cases, alongside 25 recorded deaths from the highly contagious viral disease. This figure marks a fourfold jump compared to the same period in 2025, when just 5,123 cases were reported — and already outpaces the total number of cases recorded across the entire year of 2025.
Hard-hit nations lead the regional case count. Mexico has logged 10,920 confirmed cases and 13 deaths so far this year, while neighboring Guatemala has recorded 6,209 cases and 12 deaths. The United States, one of the three World Cup host nations, has confirmed 1,952 cases, while co-host Canada has reported 1,018 cases. Peru has documented 301 confirmed cases, and smaller numbers of cases linked to local outbreaks or international importation have also been recorded in Bolivia, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Uruguay.
PAHO’s analysis confirms a clear public health trend: the overwhelming majority of confirmed cases are among people who are unvaccinated against measles, or whose vaccination history could not be verified. The organization emphasized that growing international travel ahead of the World Cup — paired with ongoing active transmission across multiple countries — creates a perfect scenario for the virus to spread quickly among crowds of visitors. This context makes robust disease surveillance and pre-travel vaccination protection critical priorities for all nations hosting or receiving travelers heading to large international events.
In its guidance, PAHO clarified that under existing International Health Regulations, measles vaccination certificates are not a mandatory entry requirement for any participating country. Even so, officials stressed that measles vaccination remains the single most effective intervention to stop transmission, prevent severe illness and death, and protect broad public health.
PAHO is calling on regional health authorities across the Americas to immediately scale up three core priorities: enhanced measles surveillance, expanded vaccination outreach to at-risk and unvaccinated populations, and rapid response protocols to contain small outbreaks before they grow. The organization also recommends that all countries conduct a full review of their current measles and rubella surveillance performance and vaccination coverage rates to identify high-risk areas, then target preventive interventions to those communities before the tournament begins.
“Heightened measles transmission around the world, combined with the massive increase in cross-border travel for the World Cup, creates ideal conditions for the virus to spread during this mass gathering,” PAHO noted in its official public alert. “In the context of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and other upcoming large public events, nations must increase the sensitivity of their surveillance systems through active case-finding efforts, document any absence of local measles and rubella transmission, and ensure all travelers have access to both accurate information and timely vaccination services.”