NYT Spartanburg County in South Carolina is ground zero for the largest measles outbreak since 2000. One school has a vaccination rate of 21 percent. The Global Academy of South Carolina, a public charter school, is housed in a glittering modern building on a sprawling campus, a 10-minute drive from the spunky downtown Spartanburg. It has Ukrainian- and Russian-language teachers on staff, reflecting that many of its roughly 600 students belong to a thriving Slavic community, whose lives revolve around the evangelical churches in surrounding Spartanburg County.
But on Oct. 8, South Carolina’s public health department made an ominous announcement: Global Academy was one of two schools in Spartanburg County where measles had been detected. Only 21 percent of its students were vaccinated, one of the worst rates for a public school in the state.
By Tuesday, the outbreak centered in Spartanburg County had grown to 990 cases, mostly in unvaccinated children, accounting for the vast majority of current cases in the United States. Two children have developed a serious complication, measles encephalitis, an inflammation and swelling of the brain.