South Carolina is witnessing an increase in measles instances, with the extremely infectious illness making its presence felt throughout the state.
Clemson College, residence to round 30,000 college students, reported on Saturday that an individual linked to the college has been identified with measles.
Whereas particular particulars about the affected person stay undisclosed, the college confirmed that the particular person is at present isolating in compliance with the South Carolina Division of Well being’s laws.
The well being division is actively conducting contact tracing to establish people who might have been uncovered to the virus. These recognized are being notified through e mail.
In response to a press release from Clemson, practically 98% of its scholar physique has proven proof of immunity to measles, due to the two-dose measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
For these absolutely vaccinated, the probability of contracting measles is a mere 3%, with signs like rashes and fever usually being much less extreme. In distinction, an unvaccinated particular person faces a 90% danger of an infection even with minimal publicity to an contaminated particular person.
The instances come as measles surges throughout the US on the heels of final 12 months’s record-breaking outbreak.
South Carolina is on the coronary heart of 2026’s outbreak with 145 instances for the reason that begin of the 12 months, the newest CDC information, up to date on January 13, reveals. Since October, South Carolina has seen over 500 instances.
Officers at Clemson College (pictured within the above inventory picture) introduced a person ‘affiliated with the college’ had a confirmed case of measles
And as of January 16, well being officers within the South Carolina report 558 instances since October 2025. State information is reported at completely different occasions than federal CDC figures.
South Carolina Division of Well being has reported there are 531 individuals in quarantine and 85 in isolation, with the newest quarantine finish marked for February 16.
The state’s outbreak has largely been centered on Spartanburg County, which sits on the border with North Carolina. Well being officers have decided that contaminated people visited the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, in addition to a Walmart, Wash Depot laundromat and a Bintime low cost retailer in Spartanburg this month.
Of the 558 instances reported in South Carolina since October 2025, 134 had been in kids below 5, 372 had been in kids ages 5 to 17, 39 had been in adults over 18 and 13 had been in an unknown age group.
The overwhelming majority, 483, people had not acquired MMR vaccines, whereas six had been partially vaccinated, 13 had been absolutely vaccinated and 56 had an unknown standing.
The most recent state information reveals 91 p.c of kindergarteners have acquired each doses of the MMR vaccine, under the 95 p.c threshold wanted for herd immunity.
In some South Carolina colleges, simply 20 p.c of scholars have been vaccinated. The speed in Spartanburg County is 90 p.c.
In response to the CDC, 93 p.c of measles instances within the US basically are in unvaccinated individuals or these with an unknown vaccine standing. Three p.c have acquired one dose of the MMR vaccine and 4 p.c have acquired each doses.
The MMR vaccine is usually given as soon as between ages 12 and 15 months and once more between ages 4 and 6. The 2-dose vaccine is estimated to be 97 p.c efficient at stopping measles.
To date in 2026, measles instances have additionally been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Arizona, Utah, Oregon and Washington state. The Snohomish County Well being Division in Washington reported Monday that it confirmed three measles instances in kids who had been uncovered to a contagious household visiting from South Carolina.
Measles is an infectious, however preventable, illness brought on by a virus that results in flu-like signs, a rash that begins on the face and spreads down the physique, and, in extreme instances, pneumonia, seizures, mind irritation, everlasting mind injury, and dying.
The virus is unfold via direct contact with infectious droplets or via the air. Sufferers with a measles an infection are contagious from 4 days earlier than the rash via 4 days after the rash seems.
The US formally eradicated measles in 2000, which means there had been no neighborhood unfold in 12 months, as a consequence of widespread MMR vaccine uptake.
However the stage of population-wide immunity wanted to stave off outbreaks and defend weak populations, about 95 p.c, has sunk to lower than 93 p.c, suggesting the instances documented in 2026 are only the start.
Enclosed areas like airports and planes are extraordinarily dangerous areas for illness transmission. The measles virus spreads through airborne droplets when an contaminated particular person coughs or sneezes.
Measles first invades the respiratory system, then spreads to the lymph nodes and all through the physique. Because of this, the virus can have an effect on the lungs, mind and central nervous system.
Measles is an especially contagious illness that results in flu-like signs, a rash that begins on the face and spreads down the physique, and, in extreme instances, pneumonia, seizures, mind irritation, everlasting mind injury and dying (inventory picture)
Whereas measles generally causes milder signs, together with diarrhea, sore throat and achiness, it results in pneumonia in roughly six p.c of in any other case wholesome kids, and extra typically in malnourished kids.
Although the mind swelling that measles can set off is uncommon, occurring in about one in 1,000 instances, it’s lethal in roughly 15 to twenty p.c of those that develop it, whereas about 20 p.c are left with everlasting neurological injury similar to mind injury, deafness or mental incapacity.
Measles additionally severely damages a toddler’s immune system, making them prone to different probably devastating bacterial and viral infections they had been beforehand protected in opposition to.
A big measles outbreak that began final 12 months in West Texas, primarily inside a largely unvaccinated spiritual neighborhood, rapidly unfold throughout state traces to the remainder of the nation. Texas officers have recorded greater than 803 instances since January 2025.
Earlier than MMR vaccines turned out there within the Sixties, measles brought on epidemics with as much as 2.6 million international deaths yearly. By 2023, that quantity had fallen to roughly 107,000 deaths.
The World Well being Group estimates that measles vaccination prevented 60 million deaths between 2000 and 2023.
