The South Carolina Department of Public Health is warning residents after 26 new measles infections were added since Friday, lifting the current outbreak to 211 cases; dozens are quarantined, some people required hospitalization, and health officials point to low vaccination rates as the main driver of spread. Schools and churches in the Upstate have had confirmed exposures, prompting targeted notifications and quarantines while DPH urges isolation when ill and vaccination to curb further transmission. The situation remains active, with a handful of cases still under investigation and public health teams tracking known exposure sites. Community cooperation on quarantine and immunization is the immediate priority to prevent more cases.
The outbreak was first identified in the Upstate region in early October and has steadily expanded since then. As of the latest update, 144 people are in quarantine and seven individuals are currently in isolation for confirmed infection. Authorities are monitoring contacts closely to interrupt chains of transmission.
The age distribution highlights a heavy impact on school-aged children: 45 cases involve children under 5, 143 involve children ages 5 to 17, 17 are adults, and six are minors whose ages were not disclosed. Vaccination records show 196 of the 211 infected individuals were unvaccinated, four were partially vaccinated, one had received vaccination and ten remain under investigation or have unknown vaccination status. Those figures make clear that this outbreak is concentrated among the unprotected.
Officials tied 19 of the new cases to exposures within known households and previously reported school clusters, while four of the recent infections followed church exposures. Public exposures were identified at Sugar Ridge Elementary and Boiling Springs Elementary, and school officials began notifying potentially affected students, faculty and staff at the end of the year. Nine students from those two schools were placed in quarantine as a precaution.
Church congregations were also affected, with exposures reported at the Tabernacle of Salvation Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg, the Slavic Pentecostal Church of Spartanburg and the Ark of Salvation Church. Those clusters echo the pattern seen elsewhere where close, indoor gatherings allow measles to spread quickly among unvaccinated people. Identifying and notifying attendees helps reduce further transmission from these events.
Investigations are ongoing: the source of one confirmed case remains unknown and two additional cases are still being probed to determine where and how infection occurred. Although most cases are being managed at home, four people—both adults and children—required hospital care for complications related to measles, and several others sought medical attention without hospitalization. Health officials emphasize that any hospitalization is serious and underscores the disease’s potential severity.
People with measles are contagious beginning four days before the rash appears, so individuals may spread the virus without realizing they are infectious. “We encourage employers to support workers in following DPH recommendations to stay out of work while ill or in quarantine, which also protects businesses, other workers and clients,” officials wrote in a statement. Staying home when sick or quarantined prevents exposure of vulnerable people and gives public health teams time to identify and manage contacts.
DPH continues to stress that vaccination remains the most effective tool to prevent measles and halt the outbreak. Though the CDC recently released new vaccine recommendations under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., its guidelines still dictate all children should be immunized for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV) and chickenpox. Parents and caregivers are urged to check immunization records, consult healthcare providers, and get up to date to protect children and communities.
