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CDC (Measles Cases and Outbreaks)

U.S. federal government public health agency

Owned byU.S. federal government; operates under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
FundingCongressional appropriations (taxpayer-funded); approximately $9.2 billion in FY2025, with the Trump administration's FY2026 budget proposal seeking a roughly 53% cut
On the administrationmixed

Background

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was founded on July 1, 1946, in Atlanta as the Communicable Disease Center, a successor to a World War II malaria-control program under the U.S. Public Health Service. After the United States was declared malaria-free in 1948, the agency expanded its mission to cover polio, smallpox, and broader infectious-disease surveillance. It was renamed the Center for Disease Control in 1970, pluralized in 1980, and received its current name — adding 'and Prevention' — in 1992. By 2000, the CDC declared measles eliminated from the United States, and the agency developed ongoing surveillance pages, including the Measles Cases and Outbreaks tracker, to monitor that status. During the Trump administration's second term (beginning January 2025), HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, took direction over the CDC; the agency halted a flu vaccination campaign, changed vaccine scheduling designations, and — according to a March 2025 ProPublica investigation — suppressed an internal measles risk assessment that had stressed the importance of vaccination. The administration also proposed cutting the CDC's budget by 53% and terminated more than $5.78 billion in CDC grants as of May 2026. Despite these institutional pressures, the measles tracking page has continued to report rising case counts: 2,289 confirmed cases in all of 2025 and more than 2,260 as of July 16, 2026, putting the country at risk of losing its measles-elimination status for the first time since 2000.

Sources

  1. Measles Cases and Outbreaks | CDC
  2. The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations — ProPublica
  3. As US Is Poised To Lose Measles-Free Status, RFK Jr.'s New CDC Deputy Downplays Its Significance — KFF Health News
  4. New Analysis: CDC's Budget Would Be Reduced by 53 Percent — Trust for America's Health
  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Wikipedia
  6. Our History — CDC Museum
  7. Tracking U.S. Measles 2026 — U.S. News & World Report
  8. FY 2026 CDC Congressional Justification
  9. Administration blocked as it tries to cut CDC funds — NPR

Profile compiled 2026-07-18; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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