Guatemala reports thousands of measles cases in first months of 2026, First deaths in years
Guatemalan health authorities confirmed on March 30 the deaths of two children due to measles, a disease that has infected nearly 3,600 people in 2026.
According to the Directorate of Epidemiology and Risk Management of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance, the victims were two boys, aged 10 and 11 months respectively—the first such deaths recorded in recent years.
The 11-month-old boy died in a rural community within the northwestern province of Quiché; his mother also tested positive for the disease.
Meanwhile, the 10-month-old boy passed away in the Department of Guatemala after being diagnosed with measles on February 27 of this year, according to authorities.
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Health, Guatemala has recorded 3,594 cases of measles nationwide to date.
The measles outbreak was confirmed in Guatemala in January of this year following a religious event held between December 10 and 14, 2025, in the community of Santiago Atitlán
(Sololá), attended by people from the United States, Mexico, and Central America.
The Ministry of Health is maintaining a strategy known as “block vaccination” to interrupt the transmission of the disease, noting that the country’s last major outbreak occurred in 1990.
Mexico, which shares a border with Guatemala, has reported more than 8,400 measles cases and 8 deaths in the same period.