Measles Outbreak Leaves 254 People Quarantined in South Carolina

Hundreds remain quarantined, and more than 100 people are sickened, amid an ongoing measles outbreak in South Carolina, where officials identified a church, and nine schools, as sources of exposure.

There have been at least 114 cases of measles reported in the state, with 111 of those infected located near Spartanburg County in the northwestern portion of the state, the most recent update from the Department of Public Health said.

Dr. Linda Bell, the state epidemiologist, said in a Dec. 10 press briefing that 27 of those cases had been reported in just three days — and shared that students from nine schools were being quarantined due to exposure. 

“That is a significant increase in our cases in a short period of time. And I think accelerating is an accurate term. I mean, that is a spike in cases that we’re concerned about,” Bell said. A church and a healthcare setting were also named as locations where measles exposure happened.

While the state has been “pretty fortunate in having people comply with the quarantine recommendations,” Bell attributed the spread to a post-holiday surge, sharing that “the increased number of cases does include gatherings around the Thanksgiving holiday.”

However, they shared that there have been people sickened by exposure in areas they haven’t been able to identify.

Bell also pointed out that “we have a lower than hoped for vaccination coverage in the population. There is the highly infectious characteristics of this virus and so all of those are contributing factors.”

Only about 90 percent of Spartanburg County children had received the required childhood immunizations — which included the measles, mumps and rubella shot, per The New York Times. That’s far below the Community Immunity Threshold (CIT) recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is about 92-94%. As the AAP explains, “this means that 92-94% of the population need to be immune to measles (through vaccination or previous infection) to prevent/limit spread of measles infections in their community.”

Of the 111 sickened related to the Spartanburg County outbreak, 105 were unvaccinated, Bell said.  Three were “partially vaccinated,” having received one of the two MMR doses. Only one of the sickened had been fully vaccinated, while the status of the others is unknown. 

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As Bell said in the conference, “Vaccination continues to be the best way to prevent the disruption that measles is causing to people’s education, to employment.” 

“If people are willing to be vaccinated, receiving an MMR vaccine within 72 hours of exposure has been shown to prevent measles infections or anyone vaccinated beyond that period could avoid future quarantine if exposed again and most importantly be protected from the disease.“

Measles brings telltale red skin inflammation, but “measles isn’t just a little rash,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says. “Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children.” Along with a high fever, cough, and runny nose, measles also carries a risk of pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain), which can cause hearing loss, cognitive disabilities and death.

Per the most recent CDC data, there have been 1,912 confirmed cases of measles in the U.S. this year; last year, there were 285.