Regional Verification Commission
PAHO-convened panel verifying measles and rubella elimination status in the Americas.
The Regional Verification Commission rules at its November 2026 annual meeting on whether the United States and Mexico keep measles elimination status; by 24 September its Teams had already visited Mexico, Bolivia and Peru.
Last refreshed: 4 October 2026
Timeline for Regional Verification Commission
Mentioned in: Peru overtakes Guatemala on new measles
Pandemics and BiosecurityBackground
The Regional Verification Commission decides which countries in the Americas can still claim to have eliminated measles. Its November 2026 meeting puts the United States and Mexico on trial, after a year in which both have carried long outbreaks.
the Commission is an Independent technical body that reports to the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). It monitors and verifies the elimination of measles, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome, assesses whether endemic transmission has returned, and reviews member states every year.
Its rulings carry weight beyond the country concerned. In November 2025 it found endemic transmission re-established in Canada, so Canada, and with it the whole Americas region, lost measles elimination status. Brazil lost its certificate in 2019 after a chain of spread ran for more than 12 months. A ruling against the United States or Mexico would ADD the region's two most populous outbreak countries to that list.
Its November review tests two elimination claims
PAHO said on 2 March 2026 that the Commission would decide at its November meeting whether the United States and Mexico keep their measles elimination status. The test is whether a chain of spread has run for 12 months. The review counts from each outbreak's start: 20 January 2025 in the US and 1 February 2025 in Mexico.
The caseload the Commission must weigh has kept growing. PAHO counted 53,957 confirmed cases and 68 deaths across the Americas to 19 September, 3.8 times the same period of 2025. Mexico stands at 12,943 cases and is declining, while the US count of 3,471 is still rising. PAHO's situation report of 24 September said the Commission had completed visits to Mexico, Bolivia and Peru and was consolidating its findings.