The ongoing measles outbreak in South Carolina has reached a staggering 789 cases, making it the largest outbreak since the United States eradicated measles in 2000.
Texas currently holds the record, with 762 cases from January to August 2025, according to CNN. The outbreak claimed the lives of two school-age children in the state. No deaths have yet been reported in the outbreak in South Carolina.
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“Although no complications have been reported to DPH, 18 people, including adults and children, are known to have required hospitalization for complications of the disease since the start of the outbreak in October 2025,” the update states. “Additionally, some cases required measles treatment but were not hospitalized.”
The statement added that the majority of infections are occurring in unvaccinated people, but there are currently 60 people whose vaccination status is unknown. Of the remaining cases, 695 have not been vaccinated and 14 have been partially vaccinated, having received only one of the recommended two doses of measles vaccine. 20 people are fully vaccinated.
The two-dose series is 97% effective in preventing measles, but there is a small chance that a fully vaccinated person who is exposed to the virus will become infected. That is why it is important to establish herd immunity. This helps protect everyone in the community by reducing the spread of the virus and reducing the likelihood of encountering the pathogen in the first place. Although both vaccination and previous infection can achieve herd immunity in certain communities, only vaccination can reduce the risk of death and long-term health problems from measles.
Given recent and ongoing outbreaks, the United States may be on the verge of losing measles elimination status. This status is achieved when a country reports no sustained community transmission of measles virus for at least one year.
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) reports that U.S. officials plan to meet with the Pan American Health Organization in April to determine whether the United States has truly lost its exclusion status. If that happens, the U.S. will join countries such as the U.K. and Canada, which have recently lost ground due to similarly low vaccination rates.
CIDRAP reported that Dr. Ralph Abraham, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressed in mid-January that he was not concerned about the United States potentially losing its exclusion status. He suggested that imported measles cases, for example from travelers to the United States, are causing the rise in measles incidence.
Countries that have eliminated measles may still face sporadic imported cases. But our status of elimination depends on whether the virus continues to circulate consistently within the United States for at least 12 months. If imported cases enter areas with adequate vaccination levels, the virus cannot take hold.
In 2000, the year measles was declared eliminated in the United States, a total of 85 cases were reported nationwide, according to CDC data. In 2025, 2,255 cases were recorded across the country. And given that South Carolina alone has already reported hundreds of new cases in 2026, this year has already blown the 2,000 number.
“I am heartbroken to learn that my state currently has the highest outbreak in the United States since the 1990s,” Dr. Anna Kathryn Lai Birch, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Prisma Health in South Carolina, told CNN.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice.
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