South Carolina officials report ‘accelerating’ measles outbreak | South Carolina
South Carolina health officials say a measles outbreak in the state has “accelerated” following Thanksgiving travel and a vaccine shortage, and hundreds of people have been quarantined.
The outbreak, which originated at a single church and several schools in Spartanburg County in the state’s northwest, has totaled 111 cases, according to an epidemiologist with the state’s public health department.
State epidemiologist Linda Bell said 105 of those people were unvaccinated and three were partially vaccinated. news briefing. As of Tuesday, 254 more people were quarantined, 16 of whom were in isolation.
“Acceleration is the correct term,” Bell said at the briefing. “This is an increase in the number of cases that we are concerned about.” He added that South Carolina’s vaccine coverage was “lower than expected.”
In an earlier advisory, the state’s health department stated: 27 new measles cases Since Friday. 16 of the new cases resulted from exposure at the Truth Way church in Inman; eight are household members of known cases and one is attributed to a school, healthcare facility or unknown exposure.
“We are facing ongoing transmission that we anticipate will last for weeks,” Bell said, adding that the increase in cases “represents a significant increase in our cases in a short period of time.”
State’s measles cases come as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports There have been 1,912 confirmed cases of measles in 43 US states this year. Most of these cases are attributed to 47 outbreaks, including a significant outbreak in Texas.
More than half of the cases occurred among children, and a total of 24 cases of measles were reported among international visitors. Two girls in Texas died after contracting measles, and a man in New Mexico is suspected of dying from measles.
For comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported in 2024, with 69% of cases (198 of 285) associated with the outbreak, the CDC reported.
Worsening outbreak in South Carolina, state health officials report The number of students vaccinated decreased from approximately 96% in 2020 to 93.5% in the 2025 school year.
In South Carolina, 20 of the cases involved children under the age of five, while 75 of the cases were detected in children between the ages of 5 and 17.
Bell said the measles outbreak is notable in part because of what’s happening in the United States. declared The elimination of measles in 2000 was a declaration that meant that measles had not spread domestically for more than a year.
Bell said that “high vaccine coverage is responsible for eliminating ongoing transmission in this country” but that over the past year “we have been at risk of losing that definition as a country.”
“What we want people to see is this picture: thinking about the effectiveness of the vaccine and essentially eliminating this disease,” he said.
The increase in outbreaks has been attributed in part to mixed messages about vaccines from federal health officials, including health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has expressed broad skepticism about the number and frequency of vaccines administered to children.
But Kennedy has made clear that he supports the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella.
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy said. A post on X in April said: after visiting the families of two dead West Texas children.
Kennedy said he directed the CDC to “provide necessary MMR vaccines to pharmacies and clinics operated in Texas,” among other medical supplies.
But in northwestern South Carolina, Bell said the deployment of mobile health clinics offering MMR vaccines has not been used extensively. “I can tell you that a relatively small number of doses have been administered at each of the mobile health unit clinics that we offer,” he said.
