BREAKING: 139 Students Quarantined in South Carolina Following Measles Exposure
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Approximately 139 students across multiple schools in South Carolina’s upstate region are under quarantine following confirmed cases of measles, state health officials announced Wednesday. The outbreak underscores a growing national trend of increasing measles cases, linked to declining vaccination rates.
“We actually anticipate that more cases may occur,” said Dr. Brannon Bell, a state health official, during a recent briefing. “The measles virus won’t be contained within schools, within school districts or by county lines, but the MMR vaccine, by providing lifelong immunity to the majority of those vaccinated, will contain the virus. And for this reason, we’re urging those who are not vaccinated to consider getting that protection now.”
The South Carolina outbreak is occurring as the U.S. experiences a surge in measles cases. Minnesota health officials recently reported two new cases this week, bringing the state’s total for the year to 20, with 18 of those cases affecting unvaccinated children who likely contracted the virus from unvaccinated adults.
Nationally, the United States recorded the most measles cases in more than 30 years earlier this year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A significant portion of these infections stemmed from an outbreak in West Texas, tragically resulting in the deaths of two unvaccinated children.
CDC data indicates that approximately 93% of kindergarteners in the U.S. were vaccinated against measles during the 2021-2022 school year, declining to 92.7% in the 2023-2024 school year. This represents a drop from 95.2% during the 2019-2020 school year-a critical threshold for maintaining community immunity.
“When more than 95% of people in a community are vaccinated,most people are protected through community immunity (herd immunity),” the CDC states.
The upstate region of South Carolina currently has approximately 90% immunity,leaving the community vulnerable to further spread.
“We are certainly concerned about the declining vaccination coverage,” Bell said. “People can travel now within the state and be exposed to measles. So this does concern us,and we just continue to emphasize everyone to please take advantage of getting protection from the MMR vaccine as quickly as possible.”
State health officials are deploying mobile health units to offer measles vaccinations to the public.
