.
Summary
Measles in July 2026
In July 2026, 13 countries reported 118 cases and 16 countries reported zero cases. Bulgaria (61), Italy (29), Spain (seven), Poland (seven) and Belgium (four) reported most of the cases.
Although case numbers decreased compared with the previous month, this trend should be interpreted with caution due to possible delay in reporting affecting recent data.
Measles cases from 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026
In the past 12 months and up to 31 July 2026, 30 EU/EEA Member States reported a total of 2 339 measles cases. Of these, 669 (28.6%) were children aged under five years and 1 197 (51.2%) were 15 years or above. The highest notification rates were observed in infants under one year of age (59.3 cases per million) and children aged 1-4 years (28.6 cases per million).
Among cases with known age and vaccination status, 1 501 (73.1%) were unvaccinated, 325 (15.8%) were vaccinated with one dose of a measles-containing vaccine, 184 (9.0%) were vaccinated with two or more doses, and 41 (2.0%) were vaccinated with an unknown number of doses.
During the 12-month period, zero deaths (case fatality rate (CFR): 0.000 %) attributable to measles were reported to ECDC by any country (Figure 4).
Rubella in July 2026
Of 29 countries which routinely report rubella data to ECDC, 27 reported data for July 2026.
Overall, case numbers increased compared with the previous month. This trend should be interpreted with caution due to possible delay in reporting affecting recent data. A total of eight cases were reported by three countries (Germany, Italy and Poland) and 24 countries reported no cases.
From 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026, 29 EU/EEA Member States reported a total of 81 cases of rubella. During the 12-month period, zero deaths (case fatality rate (CFR) = 0.000%) attributable to rubella were reported to ECDC by any country.
Implications for disease prevention and control
ECDC’s latest advice on measles is available in the Threat Assessment Brief ‘Measles on the rise in the EU/EEA: Considerations for a public health response’, published in February 2024. The latest news item on measles was published in March 2025. The current epidemiological situation requires joint efforts to:
- Close immunity gaps, achieve and maintain high vaccination coverage for measles-containing vaccine (>95% with the second dose). It is vital to ensure first and second dose vaccinations are administered on time, in accordance with national schedules, among children. It is also important to identify and vaccinate eligible individuals (for example, non-immune adolescents and young adults) in immunisation catch-up programmes (as recommended by local and national authorities).
- Strive towards high-quality surveillance and adequate public health capacity, especially for early detection, diagnosis, response and control of outbreaks.
- Increase the clinical awareness of health professionals, including reminding them of the importance of checking individuals’ vaccination status, particularly ahead of travel.
- Ensure that healthcare professionals are fully vaccinated.
- Promote vaccine acceptance and uptake by employing specific risk communication strategies and identifying drivers of suboptimal measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine acceptance and uptake to ensure that tailored interventions are implemented in response.
- Address barriers and engage with populations under-served by healthcare providers. Systemic barriers that affect vaccine uptake in under-served populations who may be isolated and difficult-to-reach need to be monitored and addressed with targeted strategies in order to reduce inequalities in vaccine uptake.
Data sources and notes
This surveillance report is based on measles and rubella data from Epipulse Cases for the reporting period 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026, and provides an overview of measles and rubella cases reported to ECDC through Epipulse Cases. Measles and rubella cases are reported monthly, and data presented here are for the latest complete months of reporting alongside a historical comparison. The number of measles and rubella cases reported to ECDC may be subject to retrospective change.
Data are submitted monthly by 30 European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries for measles, and 29 EU/EEA countries for rubella (Belgium does not submit rubella data to Epipulse Cases). All countries routinely report case-based data for both measles and rubella, except Belgium which reports aggregated data for measles (and no rubella data) and Poland which reports case-based measles data, but aggregated rubella data.
In this report, possible, probable and confirmed cases are presented together, unless otherwise specified. EU case definitions are available for measles and rubella [2], however the definition used can vary by country. A summary of each country’s surveillance system, including the case definitions used, is available in the Surveillance Systems Overview Table [3]. Cases classified as discarded (see notes) are not included in the report.
Measles and rubella data are also published each month in the ECDC Surveillance Atlas of Infectious Diseases [4], an interactive tool providing access to additional tables and graphs not included in the report.
ECDC also monitors European measles and rubella outbreaks and global measles activity through epidemic intelligence and publishes updates in the Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) on a weekly basis [5].
The CDTR provides the most recent data on cases and outbreaks based on information made publicly available by the national public health authorities or the media and also includes data for countries outside of the EU/EEA, and complements the Measles and Rubella Monthly Report. Where available, links to recent updates published by national public health authorities in the EU/EEA can be found in this report. Data presented in the two monthly reports may differ.
In addition, ECDC conducts risk assessments as significant outbreaks or public health events develop. A Threat Assessment Brief (‘Measles on the rise in the EU/EEA – Considerations for public health response’) was published by ECDC in February 2024 [6]. The most recent ECDC Rapid Risk Assessment on the risk of measles transmission in the EU/EEA was published in May 2019 [7].
Measles
Measles in July 2026
In July 2026, 29 countries reported measles data. Thirteen countries reported a total of 118 cases and 16 countries reported zero cases.
Overall, case numbers decreased compared with the previous month, however this may be subject to change in the event of a future retrospective update. The highest case counts were reported by Bulgaria (61), Italy (29), Spain (seven), Poland (seven) and Belgium (four).
Figure 1. Number of measles cases by EU/EEA country, 31 July 2026 (n = 118)
Measles cases from 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026
In the most recent 12-month period, from 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026, 30 EU/EEA Member States reported a total of 2 339 cases of measles, 2 012 (86.0%) of which were laboratory confirmed (Table 1). During this 12-month period, seven countries (Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia, Finland and Liechtenstein) reported no cases. The highest number of cases were reported by Italy (640), Bulgaria (502), Romania (310), Spain (243) and France (174), accounting for 27.4, 21.5, 13.3, 10.4 and 7.4 percent of all cases, respectively (Table 1). Notification rates above the EU/EEA average of 5.1 cases per million population were reported by Bulgaria (78.0), Latvia (26.3), Romania (16.3), Italy (10.9), Estonia (7.3), Cyprus (7.1), Belgium (5.4) and Lithuania (5.2) (Figure 3).
Table 1. Number of measles cases by month and notification rate per million population by EU/EEA country, 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026
Figure 2. Number of measles cases by month and year, EU/EEA, 1 January 2013 to 31 July 2026
