Measles is spreading fast in S.C. Here's what it says about vaccine exemptions

"Cases have nearly doubled in the last week alone. "We have right now the largest outbreak in the U.S., and it's going to get worse before it gets better," Dr. Helmut Albrecht, an infectious disease physician with Prisma Health and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, said in a briefing Friday. Hundreds of people in other parts of the state are already in quarantine or isolation, he said."

"The epicenter is in Spartanburg County, in the northwest part of the state. The area has also seen a jump in students with nonmedical exemptions to required school vaccines since the pandemic. New research published this week in the journal JAMA finds these exemptions are growing in counties across the U.S. making them vulnerable to outbreaks. And concerns are growing that infections are spreading beyond the county."

"'We have lost our ability to contain this with the immunity that we have,' Albrecht said, urging people to get vaccinated. The vaccination rate among students in Spartanburg County is 90% overall, which is lower than the 95% threshold needed to prevent measles. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases. A single case can infect up to 18 other people on average."

South Carolina reported 124 new measles cases over three days, raising the outbreak total to 558 and indicating rapid growth. The outbreak began in October and recently surged, with 248 new cases in one week, mostly among unvaccinated children and teens. Spartanburg County is the epicenter, where student vaccination coverage is about 90%, below the 95% threshold needed to prevent measles spread. Hundreds of people have been quarantined or isolated and exposures have occurred in public places including churches and restaurants; six linked cases have been reported in neighboring North Carolina. Research in JAMA shows nonmedical school vaccine exemptions are increasing across counties, heightening outbreak vulnerability and prompting officials to urge vaccination to regain containment of this highly contagious disease.

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