A 2025 measles outbreak that crossed from an undervaccinated community in Texas into New Mexico generated nearly $5.4 million in total costs, according to a new study. The estimate covers medical care, public health response efforts and lost productivity tied to the outbreak, which accounted for 100 confirmed cases.
The cost assessment included expenses for 57 adult patients and caregivers of 43 infected children, along with 205 people who were exposed and quarantined and 133 public health responders. Researchers from the New Mexico Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated the overall figure and reported their findings on Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Breakdown of costs
The study attributes roughly $3.2 million of the total to public health response efforts. Within that category, activities related to vaccination accounted for about $2.1 million. Direct medical expenditures were estimated at $290,000, which the researchers further detailed as $238,000 for seven hospitalizations, $32,000 for 79 outpatient visits and $20,000 for 1,286 commercial laboratory tests.
Productivity losses - measured as missed work - were calculated for adult patients, adult caregivers of patients under age 15, adult contacts who missed work due to exposure-related quarantine, and one patient who died. Those losses added up to nearly $1.6 million.
Per-case average and outbreak timeline
On average, the total translates to more than $53,000 for each of the 100 confirmed cases in the New Mexico outbreak. The chain of transmission began in January 2025 in a Texas community with low vaccination coverage and extended across the state line into New Mexico in February 2025, first appearing in border areas. The CDC declared the outbreak over in September 2025.
National context and expert commentary
The study's publication comes amid a larger national uptick in measles cases. So far in 2026, the United States has confirmed more than 2,300 measles infections, surpassing the 2025 tally and marking the highest annual total in 35 years, a trend the study links to declining vaccination rates.
Katherine Wells of Lubbock Public Health, who did not take part in the New Mexico analysis, described the outbreak in west Texas that seeded the New Mexico cases in a separate commentary published July 9 in the American Journal of Public Health. She warned that a seemingly modest case count can produce extensive downstream impacts, writing: "When people hear that Lubbock had 50 measles cases in 2025, they often picture something manageable... That is not what 50 measles cases look like." Wells added that each case initiates "a cascade of exposures, responses, and system disruptions."
She also cautioned that nationwide vaccination coverage is slipping and protections that prevent measles transmission are weakening. "Until we account for the full cost of outbreaks, not just the cases but the consequences, we will continue to underestimate their impact and undervalue the systems required to prevent them," she concluded.
Limitations and responses
The authors of the New Mexico study noted that some costs may not have been fully or accurately captured. They flagged missing expense categories, including over-the-counter medications and travel costs incurred for care, as items not available for inclusion in their totals.
The CDC declined to comment on the study and the New Mexico Department of Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Implications for health and economic systems
The analysis quantifies how containment activities, clinical care and lost labor combine to produce substantial costs even for a relatively small outbreak of 100 confirmed cases. Public health vaccination campaigns and response operations were the largest cost drivers in this episode, while hospitalizations and laboratory testing represented a smaller share of direct medical spending. Productivity losses were also a significant component of the total economic burden.
The researchers emphasized the difficulty of fully capturing outbreak-related expenses, an uncertainty that can limit comprehensive accounting of the financial toll of infectious disease events.