{"id":11361,"date":"2026-01-28T17:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11361"},"modified":"2026-01-28T17:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:21:31","slug":"south-carolina-measles-cases-hit-789-surpassing-texas-2025-outbreak-total","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/01\/28\/south-carolina-measles-cases-hit-789-surpassing-texas-2025-outbreak-total\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina Measles Outbreak Becomes Largest In U.S. History Since First Elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/martinadilicosa\/2026\/01\/27\/south-carolina-measles-outbreak-becomes-largest-in-us-history-since-first-elimination\/\">Forbes<\/a> South Carolina\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/antoniopequenoiv\/2026\/01\/23\/measles-cases-boom-to-start-2026-heres-where-cases-have-been-confirmed\/\">growing measles outbreak<\/a>\u00a0is now the largest in United States history since the contagious viral disease was declared eliminated more than two decades ago in the wake of widespread vaccinations, according to a report from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/01\/27\/health\/largest-us-measles-outbreak-south-carolina\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"CNN, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CNN<\/a>. Big Number<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>88%. That\u2019s the proportion of measles cases in South Carolina that have appeared in unvaccinated individuals, according to statistics shared by the state health department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Crucial Quote<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe feel like we\u2019re really kind of staring over the edge, knowing that this is about to get a lot worse,\u201d said Dr. Johnathon Elke of South Carolina-based Prisma Health at a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/south-carolina-measles-outbreak-cases-double-vaccines-quarantine-rcna253989\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"press briefing, opens in a new window\">press briefing<\/a>&nbsp;early this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Measles cases have been booming in South Carolina since the start of the new year. As of last Friday, the state health authority had confirmed 416 cases since it began tracking the outbreak in late September. The updated count represents an increase of 90% in under a week. Childhood vaccinations against measles have been declining, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/blog\/measles-is-making-a-comeback-can-we-stop-it-202503063091\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Harvard Health, opens in a new window\">Harvard Health<\/a>. Rates among school-age kids fell from 95% in 2019 to 92% in 2023. The spread is happening at a faster rate than the 2025 nationwide outbreak, when the highly contagious disease made its biggest comeback in three decades, resulting in 2,255 confirmed cases for the year, according to data from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/measles\/data-research\/index.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"CDC, opens in a new window\">CDC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forbes South Carolina\u2019s\u00a0growing measles outbreak\u00a0is now the largest in United States history since the contagious viral disease was declared eliminated more than two decades ago in the wake of widespread vaccinations, according to a report from\u00a0CNN. Big Number 88%. That\u2019s the proportion of measles cases in South Carolina that have appeared in unvaccinated individuals, according [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-headlines","category-measles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11361"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11364,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11361\/revisions\/11364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}