Measles Surge in South Carolina Ends After Sickening Nearly 1,000

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Measles Surge in South Carolina Ends After Sickening Nearly 1,000

It was the largest outbreak in recent U.S. history.

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A mobile clinic offered free measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations amid a measles outbreak in South Carolina.

Credit...

Sean Rayford/Getty Images

By

Teddy Rosenbluth

April 26, 2026,

5:00 a.m. ET

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A large measles outbreak in South Carolina that sickened nearly 1,000 people, a vast majority of whom were unvaccinated children, was declared over on Sunday.

The outbreak, which began in October and became the largest since measles was eliminated in the United States in 2000, led to 21 hospitalizations. Some of those patients developed severe complications such as pneumonia and brain swelling.

State public health officials declared the measles outbreak over after reporting no new cases in the region in 42 days, the standard measure for determining an outbreak’s end.

Most of the cases were in Spartanburg County, where a

close-knit, evangelical Slavic community

bore the brunt of the cases and where childhood vaccination rates have been

falling in recent years

.

Just 89 percent of school-age children were up to date on their required immunizations, including the measles, mumps and rubella shots, this academic year. That was down from 94 percent in the 2021-22 school year. About 95 percent of a community needs to have the measles vaccine to stem the spread of the virus.

The outbreak was contained, in part, because of a vaccination effort led by local clinics, pharmacies and doctors who together administered nearly 4,000 additional doses of the measles, mumps and rubella shot in the county compared to the year before.

But state health officials also noted that the virus, which is highly contagious, sickened so many unvaccinated people in the area that there were no more vulnerable people to infect.

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