Kentucky has announced its first confirmed measles case since at least 2023, making the state part of a growing outbreak in the U.S. The announcement came the same day Texas health officials announced the death of an unvaccinated child, marking the first measles-related death in the country since 2015.

Twenty-five years after the disease was declared “eliminated” in the U.S., cases are rising again, with a Texas outbreak now spreading to New Mexico. Measles cases continue to rise in the United States nearly two and a half decades after the virus had been declared eliminated in the country.

Measles was considered to be eliminted in the U.S. in 2000, thanks to vaccine developments. But vaccination rates have dropped since the covid pandemic began.