Canadian health officials announced Monday that the country has lost its measles elimination status due to an outbreak of the infectious disease persisting in the country for more than a year, and the United States may not be far behind.

Officials said they received notice about the designation from the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, a branch of the World Health Organization, after it confirmed that Canada had seen sustained transmission of the same measles strain for more than 12 months ― one of the main metrics used to determine a country’s elimination status.

The change brings a nearly 30-year public health victory to a screeching halt. Canada first achieved elimination status in 1998, meaning the country had gone a year or more without continuous domestic transmission of a measles strain. The U.S. followed in 2000.

In just the first 10 months of the year, Canada has seen around 5,000 cases of measles across 10 jurisdictions. That’s compared to around 1,700 cases from an outbreak across the U.S., which has around eight times Canada’s population.

There were 23 new cases in the last week of October alone, Canadian officials noted.

The outbreak has resulted in two deaths, both of premature newborns infected while in utero.

“While transmission has slowed recently, the outbreak has persisted for over 12 months, primarily within under-vaccinated communities,” the Public Health Agency of Canada announced.

In both Canada and the U.S., the current outbreaks started in Mennonite communities, which were both severely undervaccinated.

Canadian officials urged uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine in their announcement Monday.

“The measles vaccine is the best way to protect you and your family,” the agency stated. “By staying vigilant and working together to increase measles vaccine coverage, we can prevent outbreaks and keep our communities safe against this preventable disease.”

Canada will not be able to claim elimination status again until the country has gone a full year without the strain from the current outbreak spreading.

Experts have warned for months that the U.S. may be on track to lose its measles elimination status, too. PAHO is expected to make that decision if cases linked to a Texas outbreak in January persist through the end of 2025.

Such a status change, which reflects the spread of a deadly disease that carries several long-term side effects, including permanent brain damage and hearing and vision loss, could make it more difficult for Americans to travel.

“It could affect U.S. citizens’ ability to travel to specific countries if they don’t want the risk of measles getting introduced to their country,” Brittany Kmush, associate professor and graduate director of Syracuse University’s Public Health Department, told HuffPost in July. “It could affect other people’s ability to come visit the U.S. Other countries might require proof of measles vaccination before they can reenter their home country.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist chosen for the role by President Donald Trump, has repeatedly spread misinformation about MMR vaccines, claiming earlier this year that people sickened by the measles virus may just lack “good nutrition” and a “good exercise regimen.” He’s also repeatedly pushed unverified treatments for measles and claimed people who derive natural immunity from the virus may gain protection from cancer and cardiac disease.

In June, researchers found that the MMR vaccination rate among American children had fallen around 3% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, lining up with the rise of anti-vaccine misinformation. That shift followed over a decade of more stable MMR vaccination rates, the study’s authors told HuffPost.

GENEVA (AP) — World Health Organization member countries on Tuesday approved an agreement to better prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics in the wake of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus.

Sustained applause echoed in a Geneva hall hosting the WHO’s annual assembly as the measure — debated and devised over three years — passed without opposition.

The U.S., traditionally the top donor to the U.N. health agency, was not part of the final stages of pandemic agreement process after the Trump administration announced a U.S. pullout from the WHO.

Many world leaders offered words of support for the U.N. health agency, and praised the show of multilateralism.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking by video, congratulated WHO and the other member states, calling the accord “a shared commitment to fight future pandemics with greater cooperation while building a healthy planet.”

While many supporters praised the “historic” deal, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a scathing critique of the U.N. health agency, saying the United States was working with unspecified “like-minded” countries to improve the global health system and called on health ministers in others to join.

“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest and international power politics,” Kennedy said in a video statement. “We don’t have to suffer the limits of a moribund WHO. Let’s create new institutions or revisit existing institutions that are clean, efficient, transparent and accountable.”

The U.S. administration cited the WHO’s “mishandling of COVID-19” and failure to enact needed reforms, and “China’s demonstrated political influence” over science and policy at the agency, the State Department said in an email.

The U.S. was not sending a delegation for the assembly, which runs through May 27.

“I urge the world’s health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organization as a wake-up call,” Kennedy said. “It isn’t that President (Donald) Trump and I have lost interest in international cooperation. Not at all. We just want it to happen in a way that’s fair and efficient and transparent for all the member states.”

China, meanwhile, was doubling down its support for WHO — both politically and financially.

Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said “all sides need to firmly support the WHO to play a central coordinating in global health governance, (and) support WHO to perform its duty in an independent, professional and science-based manner.”

China, he said through a translator, “will provide an additional quota of financial support to the WHO that can add up to $500 million in the coming five years,” without specifying. It was not immediately clear whether that amounted to a new financial commitment from Beijing.

The United States — whose contributions to WHO have been halted — had been set to contribute more than $700 million to the current 2024-2025 budget, while China was poised to chip in more than $200 million, according to the U.N. health agency’s website.

French President Emmanuel Macron said “some believe they can do without science,” an apparent allusion to U.S. funding cuts for research.

“Not only will that harm the health of us all, but it’s first of all the population of those who are taking a step back, in a way, who will be in real danger in the face of emerging pathogens that they wouldn’t see coming,” Macron told the assembly by video.

The treaty’s effectiveness will also face doubts because the United States — which poured billions into speedy work by pharmaceutical companies to develop COVID-19 vaccines — is not taking part, and because countries face no penalties if they ignore it.

Even though it has been adopted, some hard work remains.

Countries hope to adopt by next year’s assembly an annex to the treaty that would guarantee that countries that share virus samples will receive tests, medicines and vaccines used to fight pandemics, under what’s called the Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing system. Under it, up to 20% of such products would be given to WHO to make sure that developing countries have some access to them.

Dr. Esperance Luvindao, Namibia’s health minister and the chair of a committee that paved the way for Tuesday’s adoption, said that the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted huge costs “on lives, livelihoods and economies.”

“We — as sovereign states — have resolved to join hands, as one world together, so we can protect our children, elders, frontline health workers and all others from the next pandemic,” Luvindao added. “It is our duty and responsibility to humanity.”