The South Carolina Department of Public Health reported Tuesday that the state has had nearly 800 measles cases since an outbreak beginning last October.
The outbreak is centered around Spartanburg County in the state’s upstate region and reported a total of 789 cases. South Carolina surpassed the number of cases from the Texas outbreak in 2025 which reported 762 cases between late January to mid-August 2025.
The United States declared measles eliminated in 2000, which means “there are no locally transmitted measles infections or outbreaks lasting 12 months or longer,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak in South Carolina has lasted four months and the CDC reports there have been no new outbreaks across the country in 2026.
While the number of cases does not directly affect the elimination status, it can show a pattern of reduced vaccination and likelihood of more outbreaks. Of the 789 cases in South Carolina, 692 were reported as not vaccinated and nearly 70 percent of the reported cases were in children ages 0 to 11. The CDC reported the vaccination status of 93 percent of all cases reported in 2025 was unvaccinated or unknown.
The vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) is recommended in two doses beginning at 12 months of age. The Department of Health and Human Services announced at the beginning of the year it was changing the childhood vaccination schedule recommendations, removing five vaccinations from the list. The MMR vaccine continues to be recommended in the schedule, but comments from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. undermined vaccination confidence in general, some experts say.
“There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause deaths every year,” Kennedy said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity in March 2025, during the Texas outbreak. “It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, etc. And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves. And what we need to do is give them the best information, encourage them to vaccinate.”
Start your day with essential news from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America, there have been no deaths related to the MMR vaccine in healthy people and deaths reported come from immunocompromised children who are not recommended to get the shot in the first place.
“The ongoing outbreak we are seeing in the U.S. underscores the importance of maintaining adequate levels of measles vaccination,” said William Moss, the International Vaccine Access Center’s executive director.
“The U.S. is at risk of losing its measles elimination status should cases continue at this rate. As vaccine confidence continues to be undermined, immunization is more important than ever to end this outbreak and prevent future outbreaks from occurring,” said Moss, who co-leads the Johns Hopkins measles tracking project.
