Measles is surging in the U.S. — and outbreaks can cost millions

Skip Navigation Markets Business Investing Tech Politics & Policy Video Watchlist Investing Club PRO Livestream Menu Key Points The return of measles in the U.S. can carry a huge financial burden on the U.S. healthcare system. A new tool developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimates that the 2025 measles outbreak in the U.S. — which involved roughly 2,300 confirmed cases nationwide — carried an economic cost of more than $37 million. Those costs extend beyond treating people who become sick, accounting for the resources spent investigating and containing outbreaks and wages lost when people have to miss work. A measles advisory is shown tacked to a bulletin board outside Gaines County Courthouse in Seminole, Texas, April 9, 2025. Brandon Bell | Getty Images 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 priorities. watch now VIDEO 3:03 03:03 What the measles outbreak signals for the U.S. Health and Science Costs could differ heavily depending on the state. Johns Hopkins' data includes national averages alongside state-specific inputs, including inpatient hospital costs and wages from government data or trusted health policy sources. In New York, for example, the average inpatient hospital stay is roughly $4,200 a day, while the minimum wage is $16 per hour. The tool estimates that the 48 cases reported by New York in 2025 carried an estimated $1.1 million in costs, including nearly $749,000 in public health responses, $333,000 in productivity losses and roughly $24,500 in direct medical expenses. Meanwhile, the 803 cases in Texas, the epicenter of the largest U.S. measles outbreak in 2025, carried estimated costs of nearly $13 million, according to the tool. That includes $9 million in public health costs, $4 million in productivity losses and around $288,000 in direct medical expenses. The tool builds on a study published by Patenaude and other researchers in August, which examined the costs of measles outbreaks in the U.S. The researchers reviewed published studies and government reports to compile historical estimates of medical expenses and public health response costs across 18 states. The paper estimated that outbreaks carried a historical average cost of nearly $59,000 per case, just from the public health response. The researchers also estimated how costs scale with outbreak size, separating fixed up-front response expenses from the additional costs associated with each new case. "A lot of this is incurred up front, and that's because of the human labor that's involved in contact tracing and all of the different actors that sort of need to be mobilized to deal with the fact that there's an outbreak," Patenaude told CNBC. "It's a largely labor-driven cost." That model estimated roughly $298,000 in fixed costs and about $16,300 for each additional case. But it relied on historical data, including a particularly large 2019 outbreak in New York City, where contact-tracing labor costs were high. The researchers also excluded productivity losses from that model because most of the historical studies they reviewed did not consistently account for them. The costs of lost productivity A medical assistant gives a measles, mumps and rubella, vaccination to a young person at the pediatric office of Dr. Gary M. Kramer in Coral Gables, Florida, Aug. 13, 2026. Joe Raedle | Getty Images The economic burden of measles extends beyond the costs of treating infected patients and organizing a public health response. People who are exposed to measles may have to quarantine, even if they never develop symptoms. Parents can also be forced to miss work to care for sick or exposed children, while workers who contract the disease may lose wages during their recovery. A 2025 study by Joey Mattingly, a pharmacist and health economist at the University of Utah, used published epidemiological and cost data to model the potential economic burden of a hypothetical 1,500-case outbreak. His analysis included direct medical expenses, public health spending and lost productivity, and examined how the estimates changed under different assumptions, including hospitalization rates. The study estimated that the hypothetical outbreak could cost about $90 million, including roughly $26 million in productivity losses. The economic ripple effects of a case Those indirect costs can add up quickly because measles is highly contagious and a single infected person can expose dozens of others. Those contacts may need to quarantine or miss work while health officials determine whether they have been infected, creating costs even when they never develop the disease. Mattingly estimated that each person who is quarantined could amount to roughly $300 in lost productivity alone. If a single measles case exposes 40 to 50 people who then need to quarantine, that could translate into an estimated $12,000 to $15,000 in lost productivity, even if none of those contacts become sick. MMR vaccine administer prep is pictured during a dr