Current and potential outbreaks to be aware of—and ready to talk about

Healthcare stakeholders of a certain age range will remember when the Centers for Disease Control declared measles dead and gone in the U.S. That was in 2000. The eradication was nice while it lasted, wasn’t it?

Measles went on to reenter the scene in localized fits and starts over the next two decades. Then came last year and this one. Today the viral disease is back in a big way, heading toward 2,500 current cases and making national headlines. 

The silver lining may be the expansion of public awareness around the risks of refusing vaccinations. 

With that in mind, now seems a good time for a roundup of outbreaks that are either  currently infecting people at scale or threatening to. The list is partial, not exhaustive. Its focus is infections that healthcare consumers are talking about—or will be—thanks largely to media attention. 

Candida auris (C. auris). 

This transmissible and potentially deadly fungal infection had turned up in 3,130 people across 23 states as of July 18, CDC data shows. While the case count is a little lower than that of a year ago, around 3,350, the present number is nothing to shrug off, the agency reminds. 

Most strains of C. auris are resistant to at least one type of antifungal medicine, CDC noted earlier this year. “Fortunately, most infections can be treated with a class of antifungal medications called echinocandins,” the agency added. “However, some C. auris strains are resistant to all three main classes of antifungal medicines, including echinocandins.”

More to the point for healthcare workers and leaders, it’s often acquired in hospitals by patients with weakened immune systems.

CDC recommends healthcare providers consider combining multiple antifungal medicines or try a newer pre-approved antifungal to treat multidrug-resistant infections.

Cyclosporiasis.

Due to one multistate outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce, the American public has lately heard a lot about Cyclospora cayetanensis, a single-celled, microscopic parasite that sickens its hosts with “watery, sometimes explosive” diarrhea. 

On Aug. 4 CDC said it has received reports of 10,468 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis and is aware of more than 12,255 additional cases that are not lab-confirmed or need more investigation and analysis. The agency notes that, on July 17, the produce distributor Taylor Farms recalled iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico.

More information from CDC is here and in the news here.

Measles.

By the end of July, CDC had confirmed 2,371 measles cases. A small handful of states have avoided the spread so far, but it reaches from Southern California to Maine and Washington State to South Florida. 

Some 37 new outbreaks have been reported so far this year, and 94% of confirmed cases (2,219 of 2,371) are outbreak-associated (846 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 1,373 from outbreaks that started in 2025), according to the agency. 

This week the CDC and New Mexico Health Department released data showing one outbreak in that state last year rang $5.4 million in expenses. Reuters notes the figure included costs not only for the infected patients—57 adults and 43 children—but also for 205 exposed and quarantined contacts and 133 public health responders.

In a contentious interview on CNN Aug. 2, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged parents to vaccinate their children for measles. “A measles vaccine is effective,” Kennedy told host Dana Bash. “It stops measles in about 97% of the cases. So people should get vaccinated.”

Dengue fever.

While it’s only transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, not other humans, this potentially fatal illness bears watching across the U.S. and Europe as well as the world regions in which it’s most common—Southeast Asia, the western Pacific islands, Latin America and Africa.

CDC reports 1,454 cases in the U.S. across 36 jurisdictions as of Aug. 5. 

Most dengue cases reported in the continental United States occur in travelers who are infected elsewhere, the CDC states. However, the mosquitoes that spread the dengue virus  can be found in much of the southern continental United States as well, CDC says, adding that local transmission of dengue has occurred in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Arizona and California.

Dengue doesn’t often reach severe status in healthy persons; however, for those whose infection progresses to an advanced stage, immediate medical attention is warranted, the Mayo Clinic warns. “Severe dengue fever is a life-threatening medical emergency,” Mayo underscores. “Seek medical help right away if you’ve recently visited an area where dengue fever is known to happen, you have had a fever and you get any of the warning signs of severe dengue fever.” 

West Nile Virus.

This year has seen 143 reported cases so far this year, CDC data shows. The hardest-hit states as of Aug. 4 are Arizona (71 cases), Texas (18) and California (11), although this week has seen reports of infection pop up all over, so the national count of 143 is likely already outdated. 

Like Dengue, West Nile is only spread by mosquitoes and causes sickness levels ranging from mild to severe. The CDC reminds healthcare professionals that no vaccines are licensed for use in humans, and no treatments are available beyond supportive clinical management. 

Tick-borne illnesses.

Along with Lyme disease—476,000 suspected and treated cases per year—healthcare professionals and leaders should know of the existence of Tularemia (“rabbit ever”), Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Bourbon virus, Powassan virus and several others. The CDC offers a reference manual as well as a dedicated webpage to tick-borne diseases. 

Ebola. 

In remote areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, this viral disease is spreading faster than the World Health Organization’s scale-up of the response. In some hotspots, cases have doubled over the past week. 

So reports WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, on X. Local communities “must be at the center of and have ownership of the response,” he writes. “We cannot stop Ebola without their trust, leadership and partnership.”

Congo’s Ministry of Health says the current outbreak has taken more than 1,700 lives and infected almost 4,000 individuals, AP reports.

CDC notes that, to date, no cases of Ebola disease have been confirmed in the United States and the overall risk to the American public and travelers remains low.

Still, it’s much in the news—and, as a result, somewhat on the minds of healthcare consumers, workers and leaders. 

For more on current and potential outbreaks: 

• Always under CDC’s watchful eye—and worth at least a weekly look from healthcare workers and leaders—are COVID-19, influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). 
   
• Occasionally in the news—and so perhaps intermittently on patients’ and healthcare workers’ minds—are salmonella, hantavirus, listeria and typhus. 
   
• For CDC updates on current outbreaks of note both in the U.S. and abroad, click here.