With measles cases continuing to rise across the US, a group of infectious disease specialists, medical societies, and public health professionals are launching an effort that will provide education and tools for clinicians who may never have seen the disease.

The Measles Collaborative is spearheaded by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The group will in part update the evidence base to inform clinicians about what is known, what is not known, and where more research is needed, said Patricia A. Stinchfield, RN, MS, a former NFID President who is the Collaborative’s executive director.

The information will be available on the NFID’s website, which will be a “one-stop shop” for clinicians, along with checklists and algorithms for infection control, Stinchfield said.

It will also release an app for clinicians being developed by pediatric infectious diseases specialist Adam Ratner, MD. Although the app won’t be available immediately, it will have detailed clinical support, including photos of measles rashes and guidance on testing, she said.

Stinchfield said the Collaborative won’t duplicate other organizations’ efforts. It will fill gaps left by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ lack of communication about measles and by the absence of recommendations from the temporarily-halted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, she said.

There’s no urgency from federal health authorities, she said. Instead, they have issued mixed and confusing messages and have not issued strong recommendations to vaccinate against the disease, said Stinchfield.

The group aims to eliminate measles in the US — a feat that was accomplished in 2000. But cases exploded in 2025 and have continued to grow in 2026. As of July 16, the CDC reported 2245 domestic cases of measles in 43 states and Washington, DC. Ninety-three percent of those infected were unvaccinated.

“We probably have about four times the number of cases than what has been recorded,” said Stinchfield.

The Johns Hopkins US Measles Tracker shows that cases have slowed in some of the hardest hit states, such as Arizona, Utah, Virginia, but they continue to accumulate there.

The Collaborative’s mission is being informed by experts who gathered into eight work groups to look at specific issues, such as public health, epidemiology, infection control, research, neurologic complications, and special considerations in obstetrics. Those groups are reviewing the literature and will publish articles in a special supplement of the Clinical Infectious Disease Journal in early 2027, Stinchfield said.

Much of the information will be available sooner, however. The Collaborative will be holding webinars and conducting social media and other outreach to parents, she said.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re at this time in our history where we do need medical organizations and other groups to do things like vaccine guidance,” said former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, MD.

Houry told Medscape Medical News that the information and guidance currently on the agency’s website about measles is “accurate,” but that she can understand why an organization like the Measles Collaborative would be proactively issuing new tools.

“Probably many physicians haven’t seen measles before in their career,” said Houry, who is a senior fellow at Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut.

Another consideration, according to Houry — a lack of federal leadership. “Normally, if we were having outbreaks in multiple states, there would be much more national attention to this than there has been,” she said.

Houry and Stinchfield said that CDC continues to help state and local health departments when they request assistance. Typically, that would involve providing technical assistance on infection control, help with contract tracing, and sometimes providing additional vaccines or funding, said Houry.

But with an erosion in trust in the CDC, state and local authorities might not be as likely to ask for that federal assistance, Houry said.

Stinchfield disclosed that NFID’s primary support comes from the pharmaceutical industry, but that the Measles Collaborative was solely developed and staffed by NFID volunteers and was not undertaken at the direction of industry. Other Collaborative members are supported by their own organizations. Houry reported consulting for the California Department of Public Health.

Alicia Ault is a Saint Petersburg, Florida-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in many health and science publications, including Smithsonian.com. You can find her on X @aliciaault and on Bluesky @aliciaault.bsky.social.