As the world enters the final months of 2025, a wave of infectious disease outbreaks and falling vaccination rates is sparking renewed concern among public health officials on multiple continents. From the deserts of the American Southwest to the bustling clinics of the United Arab Emirates and the heart of Europe, experts are sounding alarms about the resurgence of diseases once thought to be under control—measles, polio, and seasonal influenza.
In the United States, the Utah–Arizona border region has become the epicenter of a growing measles crisis. According to recent reports, more than 100 people have been infected since August 2025, making it the second-largest cluster of measles cases in the country this year. The majority of these infections have occurred among unvaccinated individuals, a trend that health officials attribute to a steady decline in childhood immunization rates. In Mohave County, Arizona, for example, vaccination among kindergartners plummeted from 90% in the 2019–20 school year to just 78% in 2024–25. A similar drop has been observed in neighboring southwest Utah.
This decline has been fueled, at least in part, by state laws in both Utah and Arizona that allow parents to exempt their children from school vaccine mandates on personal or religious grounds. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, personal exemption rates have nearly doubled, creating fertile ground for outbreaks. Public health experts warn that about 95% of a population must be immunized to prevent measles from spreading—a threshold now threatened in several communities.
The consequences have been dire. "It would be deeply embarrassing," said Dr. Walter Orenstein, former director of the U.S. Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when asked about the prospect of the United States losing its measles elimination status. This designation, granted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), requires countries to prevent continuous transmission for more than a year. If the Utah–Arizona outbreak is genetically linked to earlier clusters and continues into January 2026, the U.S. could lose this hard-won status. While there are no sanctions attached, the symbolic blow would be significant for a country with vast resources and a long history of disease control.
Measles is more than just a childhood rash. It typically begins with fever, cough, and a telltale rash, but can escalate to pneumonia or brain inflammation, sometimes causing blindness or intellectual disability. This year, one in eight U.S. measles patients has been hospitalized, and two children have died—the first measles-related deaths in the country in a decade, according to CDC data. The agency has deployed rapid response teams to Utah, Arizona, Minnesota, and South Carolina in an effort to contain the spread.
The U.S. is not alone in facing these challenges. Canada and Mexico are also battling large measles outbreaks, and Canada is expected to lose its elimination status before the end of October 2025. Experts warn that the entire North American continent could soon lose its measles-free designation, reflecting a broader trend of declining trust in public health, weakened vaccine laws, and the politicization of vaccination during and after the pandemic. Nationally, childhood immunization rates in the U.S. have dropped to their lowest in a generation, with the CDC recording 44 outbreaks of three or more cases in 2025—up from just 16 in 2024.
Meanwhile, in Europe, a different but equally troubling trend is emerging. On October 24, 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that polio vaccine coverage across the continent has fallen to its lowest level in several years, leaving more than 450,000 infants unprotected. Polio vaccination rates dropped in 2024, and the consequences are already being felt far beyond Europe’s borders. New polio cases have been confirmed in Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea this year: Afghanistan has reported nine cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1), including two with paralysis onset in early October, while Papua New Guinea has recorded three cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), two of which resulted in paralysis in August.
The threat is not confined to the developing world. Routine wastewater surveillance has detected poliovirus type 2 in six European countries—Finland, Germany, Israel, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom—since September 2024. In response, WHO/Europe and its partners are working closely with national and local public health authorities to strengthen immunization programs and respond rapidly to any new detections, aiming to prevent further spread.
To address international travel risks, the U.S. CDC has issued a Travel Health Notice listing 39 countries with ongoing polio risk in 2025, urging travelers to ensure they are fully vaccinated before visiting these areas. "Gaps in immunization coverage make children vulnerable and pose a health security risk to our region and beyond," stated Ihor Perehinets, MPH, the regional emergency director for WHO's European office, in a recent press release.
Even in countries where vaccination programs remain robust, public health officials are not taking any chances. In the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) recently released its 2025–2026 Seasonal Influenza Awareness Guide, urging all residents to get their annual flu vaccine before winter arrives. The ministry identified six groups most at risk: senior citizens, children aged six months to five years, pilgrims, pregnant women at any stage, people with chronic diseases such as heart or lung conditions, and healthcare workers. The influenza vaccine, which provides an estimated 70% to 90% protection against clinical infection in healthy adults, has been used safely worldwide for over 60 years. Most side effects are mild and short-lived, such as soreness at the injection site or a low-grade fever.
According to MoHAP, vaccination not only reduces the risk of infection but also helps cut down on hospitalizations and deaths linked to flu complications. Research shows that flu vaccination can reduce the severity of illness and hospital admissions among the elderly by 25% to 39%, and lower overall mortality by up to 75%. The ministry emphasized that vaccines are available at all public and private healthcare centers across the UAE, and encouraged everyone—especially those in high-risk groups—to get vaccinated without delay.
The WHO underscores the global impact of seasonal influenza, which affects 5% to 10% of adults and 20% to 30% of children each year, causing 3 to 5 million severe cases and up to 650,000 respiratory-related deaths annually. The virus spreads rapidly through droplets or contaminated surfaces, and symptoms can range from fever and headache to severe fatigue, muscle pain, and in children, vomiting or diarrhea. While most people recover within a week, vulnerable groups face a much higher risk of severe illness or complications.
As the battle against vaccine-preventable diseases intensifies, the message from health authorities is clear: maintaining high vaccination coverage is not just a personal choice, but a collective responsibility. The stakes are high, and the consequences of complacency are already being felt in communities around the world. Whether it’s the resurgence of measles in the American Southwest, falling polio immunity in Europe, or the annual threat of influenza, the evidence is mounting—vaccines remain one of the most effective tools in the fight for global health security.
