Measles epidemic: 658 cases recorded in 2025, a figure already well above that of 2024

The measles epidemic has killed two of the approximately 700 people affected in France since the beginning of 2025, already exceeding the total for 2024 , Public Health France highlighted on Monday, June 23. This contagious disease is resurging worldwide, in particular due to a weakening of vaccination.

"From January 1 to May 31, 2025, 658 cases of measles were reported (...), a total already exceeding by more than 35% the number of cases reported in 2024 (483)," the agency indicated, including 14% of imported cases after a stay abroad (Morocco, Vietnam, Romania, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Algeria, Guinea, etc.).

The number of cases appears to have peaked in March at the national level, but remains at a high level, particularly in certain regions, Public Health France added.

In mainland France, the Nord (117 cases), Bouches-du-Rhône (50 cases), Isère and Haute-Savoie (39 cases each), Hérault (27 cases), Paris (25 cases), Seine-Saint-Denis (22 cases), Pas-de-Calais (22 cases), and Val-d'Oise (20 cases) accounted for more than half of the cases. No cases were reported overseas.

Since the beginning of 2025, just over a third of cases have resulted in a visit to the emergency room or hospitalization (including ten in intensive care), and more than one in ten have experienced a complication, including encephalitis. Two immunocompromised individuals, whose ages were not disclosed, have died. Hospitalizations and complications have primarily affected infants and young children, but also young adults.

"The four age groups most affected, representing nearly half of the cases, were children aged 1-4 (15%), adolescents aged 15-19 (13%) and 10-14 (12%), and adults over 40 (12%)," specifies Public Health France. "The highest measles case notification rate was observed among infants under 1 year old."

Measles causes fever, respiratory symptoms and rash, and sometimes more serious complications, such as pneumonia and inflammation of the brain, which can cause serious damage or even death.

Of all cases since the beginning of January in France for which vaccination was recommended (people over one year old and born after 1980) and whose vaccination status was known, just over 70% were unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

The resurgence of measles is affecting many countries, amid insufficient vaccination. In Europe and the United States, for example, rates are below the 95% recommended to prevent its spread.

More than 1,000 cases of measles have been recorded in the United States since the beginning of the year, 25 years after measles was officially declared eradicated there thanks to vaccination. This is the worst outbreak in "probably 30 years," US pediatric infectious disease specialist Paul Offit told AFP in early May, estimating the actual number of cases to be "close to 3,000, or even more."