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As an Arctic blast brings cold weather to North America, many travelers are planning vacations to warmer climates in 2026. While dreaming of sandy beaches, travelers need to research areas where mosquito-related illnesses might be common.
After a record-setting year in 2024, when global Dengue fever cases reached nearly 14 million and resulted in over 9,000 deaths across 106 countries and territories, new data shows that infections have significantly declined this year.
As of early December 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded just over 5 million dengue cases and about 3,000 dengue-related fatalities, marking a notable decline in outbreaks from the previous year.
This WHO data represents roughly a 65% drop from 2024's total.
WHO experts attribute the reduction partly to improved vector control measures, shifts in herd immunity, and varying seasonal patterns.
In the United States, both travel-related and locally acquired dengue cases were also reduced in 2025.
However, according to the U.S. CDC data as of December 31, 2025, seven jurisdictions reported 3,325 local Dengue cases this year, including warm weather destinations.
The unfortunate leader is Puerto Rico, which has reported 3,154 Dengue cases, followed by Florida (58) and California (6).
From a disease-prevention perspective, Puerto Rico continued to administer the first-generation Dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, to 82 people this year.
Currently, neither Florida nor California offers Dengue vaccinations in high-risk areas, such as Florida's southeast coast.
With the arrival of a third Dengue vaccine (Butantan-DV) in 2026, even more people will have the chance to stay safe from this serious, preventable disease!
As 2025 draws to a close, I want to begin by first thanking the millions of health workers, vaccinators, surveillance officers, laboratory scientists, social mobilizers, and community volunteers who carried polio eradication forward during what was a difficult year, wrote Dr. Jamal Ahmed, Director, Polio Eradication, WHO, and Chair of the Strategy Committee of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
In a Dear Colleagues letter, Dr. Ahmed recently offered various insights on December 18, 2025, such as these clips:
These challenges demanded difficult choices. They reinforced the need for sharper prioritization, greater efficiency, and uncompromising focus on what matters most to interrupt transmission.
In direct response to the realities of 2025, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) developed a focused 2026 Action Plan as an operational companion to the Polio Eradication Strategy 2022–2029. This Action Plan is grounded in realism and urgency. It protects non-negotiable functions while adapting to financial constraints, and it prioritizes impact and execution.
The plan focuses on concentrating resources on the highest-risk geographies, including the remaining subnational areas with persistent wild poliovirus and circulating variant poliovirus transmission.
It includes intensifying and refining vaccination strategies, expanding use of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), and targeted use of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) to close.
More than two billion doses of nOPV2 have now been delivered globally.
This innovation has fundamentally strengthened our ability to control and prevent variant poliovirus outbreaks and stands as a testament to what science, partnership, and disciplined execution can achieve together.
Introduction of the IPV-containing hexavalent vaccine and scale-up of fractional-dose IPV are further examples of scientific innovations that help advance the effort.
It is important for us to remember, even before eradication is achieved, that the impact of this effort has been profound. Tens of millions of people are walking today, and millions are alive who might not have survived.
Entire communities that were once beyond the reach of basic health services have been reached with vaccines, protection, and care. This legacy matters, and it must not be forgotten as we focus on finishing the job, added Dr. Ahmed.
The unedited version is linked at Vax-Before-Travel.com.
South Carolina's Department of Public Health (DPH) today announced it is actively responding to a measles outbreak centered around Spartanburg County.
Seven of the new cases were known household exposures; five resulted from a previously reported school exposure; two resulted from an exposure at church; and one resulted from an exposure at either school or church. The sources of four cases are unknown, and one is still being investigated, stated DPH.
As of December 30, 2025, DPH is reporting 179 cases of measles since early July, with 176 in the upstate area.
DPH wrote that some cases are travel-related exposures or close contacts of known cases. Other cases have no identified source, suggesting that measles is circulating in the community and could spread further.
We have seen measles spread quickly in unvaccinated households here in South Carolina. We also know that it can spread rapidly in unvaccinated communities based on outbreaks in other states, added the DPH.
Nationally, the U.S. CDC reported 2,012 confirmed measles cases across 44 jurisdictions as of December 23, 2025. Most of these cases were confirmed in Texas earlier this year.
Internationally, measles is an ongoing risk around the world, and more international travelers are getting infected. Both Canada and Mexico continue to report an excessive number of measles cases in 2025.
The CDC recommends that most international travelers ensure they have received an MMR vaccination before departing abroad.
The Florida Health Department (FHD) Arbovirus Surveillance Report for Week #52 highlights the impact of travel on our local health landscape, as two mosquito-transmitted diseases were introduced to Miami-Dade County this year by visitors from Cuba.
José Martí International Airport is located in Havana, Cuba, about 200 miles across the Straits of Florida, making it a very close neighbor to Miami International Airport.
As of December 30, 2025, there were 256 Chikungunya and 305 Dengue fever cases reported in the greater Miami area this year.
Throughout 2025, Florida recorded 268 travel-related Chikungunya cases and 416 Dengue cases among international travelers. Last week, eighteen cases of chikungunya fever were reported in persons who had international travel.
Additionally, Florida's East Coast saw 62 locally acquired Dengue cases, including 25 in Miami-Dade.
To better inform travelers of these health risks when visiting Cuba, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) includes Cuba in various Travel Health Notices.
The CDC advises international travelers to speak with a travel vaccine expert before visiting high-risk areas in 2025.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced updated figures on the chikungunya virus (CHIKV) outbreak, revealing a significant resurgence in 2025 with 502,264 reported cases, including 208,335 confirmed cases and 186 associated deaths.
As of December 29, 2025, this Rapid Risk Assessment says WHO regions have seen declines in cases compared to 2024, others are experiencing sharp increases, and the mosquito-transmitted virus is emerging in previously unaffected populations.
This uneven pattern makes it challenging to assess the overall global trend, but points to localized outbreaks and resurgences in specific areas.
The Region of the Americas recorded the highest number of confirmed cases, closely followed by the European Region, where the majority stem from French Overseas Departments in the Indian Ocean.
The WHO warns that the risk of further geographic spread remains high as infected travelers can introduce the virus to new areas, where local transmission can establish if competent Aedes mosquitoes are present.
In the United States, the leading states reporting travel-related chikungunya cases include southeast Florida (250) and Texas (6).
WHO advises travelers to affected areas to use insect repellent, wear protective clothing, and consider preventive measures such as vaccination.
Previously, the U.S. CDC has issued Level 2 - Practice Enhanced Precautions, Travel Health Notices focused on chikungunya outbreaks in China, Cuba, and France's overseas departments.
As of December 30, 2025, two chikungunya vaccines are available globally, including in the USA at travel clinics.
In a step toward supporting patients living with recurrent genital herpes, a chronic and stigmatized sexually transmitted infection, Gilead Sciences, Inc. recently announced that it had exercised its option to exclusively license two investigational therapeutic candidates from its partner, Assembly Biosciences, Inc.
This agreement marks the first set of antiviral assets that Gilead will advance under its 2023 research and development collaboration with Assembly Biosciences.
This clinical program targets the sexually transmitted herpes simplex virus (HSV) helicase-primase enzyme. Over four million people in the U.S. and European countries experience recurrent genital herpes.
According to Gilead, no new therapies have been approved for HSV in the U.S. or Europe for more than 25 years.
The candidates, ABI-1179 and ABI-5366, are novel long-acting oral inhibitors designed to potentially offer once-weekly or even monthly dosing for chronic suppressive therapy, with the potential to improve chronic suppressive therapy for recurrent genital herpes.
Positive interim Phase 1b data for ABI-5366 and ABI-1179 demonstrated potent antiviral activity and improvements in clinical outcomes, including a significant reduction in virus-positive lesions. Both compounds also exhibit pharmacokinetic and safety profiles supportive of once-weekly oral dosing.
"At Gilead, we develop novel antiviral therapeutics that aim to deliver meaningful solutions that improve the lives of people affected by serious viral infections. Our research partnership with Assembly Bio has been highly fruitful, and we are excited to continue the clinical development of our herpes simplex virus candidates, "said Jared Baeten, MD, PhD, Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, Virology Therapeutic Area Head, Gilead Sciences, said in a press release on December 22, 2025.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company that has pursued and achieved breakthroughs in medicine for more than three decades.
As of December 29, 2025, herpes vaccine candidate information is published by Vax-Before-Travel.com.
Global vaccination programs have significantly reduced newborn deaths in the last 30 years. However, tetanus remains a public health problem in many countries.
In the U.S., approximately 10% of people diagnosed with tetanus die.
According to recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 37 tetanus cases have been reported nationwide, the most in over a decade.
This CDC data is an increase from 33 in 2024 and 18 in 2023.
The leading states reporting cases include Florida, where the 8 cases occurred across five counties: Charlotte (2), Martin (1), Palm Beach (2), Seminole (2), and Walton (1).
"A booster of some form of tetanus shot should be updated every 10 years or sooner, especially if there is injury by stab, animal bite, or dirty wounds," Duellyn Pandis, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, CTM®, AFTM RCPS(Glasg), FAANP, informed Vax-Before-Travel on December 28, 2025.
Pandis, the CEO of PassportHealth-Tampa, added that local news recently reported that Florida may eliminate tetanus vaccination requirements for children.
Despite this global progress, recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underscore the ongoing importance of tetanus vaccination in the United States.
The CDC says most reported tetanus cases occur in individuals who are unvaccinated, under-vaccinated, or have waning immunity, particularly among older adults and those with chronic conditions.
While tetanus is rare in the United States due to historically high vaccination coverage, these recent increases serve as a reminder that no one is fully protected without staying current on boosters, according to the CDC website. Vaccination not only prevents individual cases but also safeguards vulnerable populations.
In the U.S., three types of combination vaccines include protection against tetanus: DTaP, Tdap, and Td. These vaccines are offered at clinics and pharmacies.
