A measles outbreak in South Carolina has grown to 15 confirmed cases, state health officials said Friday. The outbreak, which was first recognized in early October, has mostly affected people who had close contact with others who were quarantined at home, with no additional school exposures documented.
Outbreak Details
The outbreak originated in South Carolina’s upstate region, specifically Spartanburg County, which is near the North Carolina border. Although the infected persons were quarantined before becoming contagious, the state health department assured the public that no further exposures were caused by these new cases. Spartanburg County had previously taken action last week, when at least two primary schools sent home over 150 unvaccinated pupils for a 21-day quarantine due to suspected measles exposure. Since then, five of these students have contracted the illness.
Impact on Schools and Immunization Rates
The outbreak has affected two schools: Global Academy of South Carolina and Fairforest Elementary. As of this week, over 100 pupils from these schools were still in quarantine. Global Academy, a K-5 charter school with over 600 pupils, found that only 17% of its students are current on needed vaccines. Fairforest Elementary has a higher vaccination rate of 85%, but health experts believe a 95% vaccination rate is required to ensure herd immunity in communities.
Mobile vaccination effort
In response to the epidemic, the South Carolina Department of Public Health will deploy a mobile vaccine unit in Spartanburg County over the next two weeks. To assist prevent the disease from spreading, the unit will provide free measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccinations to the general population.
National Measles Surge
The epidemic in South Carolina coincides with a greater spike in measles infections in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 1,596 confirmed measles cases in 41 states this year, the highest number in more than 30 years. According to the CDC, more than 90% of the cases have occurred among people who have not been vaccinated or who have uncertain vaccination status. So far, 44 outbreaks have been confirmed across the country, a considerable rise above the 16 reported previous year.
CDC Vaccination Recommendations
The CDC still recommends two doses of the MMR vaccine for children, the first at 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. A single dosage of the vaccine is 93% effective, whereas two doses are 97% effective against measles. Although measles was proclaimed extinct in the United States in 2000 as a result of effective vaccination efforts, current data reveal that vaccination rates have been dropping, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Declining vaccination rates
According to CDC data, 92.5% of kindergarten students received the MMR vaccine in the 2024-2025 school year. This represents a little dip from 92.7% the previous year and a considerable drop from 95.2% in the 2019-2020 school year, before the pandemic.
