The largest measles outbreak the United States has seen in more than three decades is over. South Carolina officials marked 42 days with no new measles cases confirmed in an outbreak that began in Spartanburg County last October, and was seeded in the private schools and churches of the Upstate region.The announcement comes as US cases reach 1,792.
Response efforts, including vaccination, key
In a statement on the end of the outbreak, South Carolina’s Department of Public Health’s Interim Agency Director, Edward Simmer, MD, said it was the healthcare workers in the Upstate region who helped contain this outbreak to mostly one corner of the state.
They quickly learned about a disease many had never seen before and took precautions to ensure people received the care they needed without putting others at risk.
“They quickly learned about a disease many had never seen before and took precautions to ensure people received the care they needed without putting others at risk,” Simmer said in a media statement. “It was largely due to their tireless efforts to communicate the effectiveness of the MMR [measles, mumps, and rubella] vaccine through one-on-one conversations with families that led to a 93.6 percent increase in MMR vaccinations during the outbreak.”
The state said 81,096 MMR vaccinations were given overall statewide, up 31.3% from the previous year.
Unvaccinated school-age children were the most affected by this outbreak, with 95.3% of case-patients unvaccinated and 90.8% of cases in children 17 years old and younger. Spartanburg County recorded 940 cases (94%), followed by Greenville County with 36 and Anderson County with eight cases. Pickens, Lancaster, Cherokee, and Sumter counties each had a handful of cases.
A total of 33 schools had measles exposures, and seven public school districts were affected. Over the course of six months, 874 students were asked to quarantine.
The estimated cost to South Carolina was $2.1 million.
US total for 2026 reaches 1,792 cases
Late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted 44 new measles cases in its weekly update, one more than the 43 new cases confirmed the previous week. The national total now stands at 1,792 cases.
There have been 22 new outbreaks reported in 2026, and 93% of confirmed cases are outbreak-associated. Six percent of case-patients (101 of 1,792) have been hospitalized this year. There have been no deaths in 2026 from measles in the United States.
Utah reported five more cases in the past week, bringing the state total to 410 for 2026. Arizona has seven more cases, raising the 2026 total to 85. The four most recent cases came from Maricopa County.
This week the Pan American Health Organization is urging regional leaders to increase MMR vaccination rates in member countries. Several countries in the Americas, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States, are seeing a measles resurgence.
In 2025, 14,767 confirmed cases were reported across 13 countries, nearly 32 times more than in 2024. And, as of April 5, more than 15,300 cases have already been reported this year.
“The re-emergence of measles in the Americas is a significant setback, but one that is entirely reversible and demands decisive action,” PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa, MD, PhD, MPH, said in a press statement.