Health experts: SC measles outbreak over, but there could be another unless vaccination rates improve

SPARTANBURG CO., S.C. – The measles outbreak in upstate South Carolina, the largest in the U.S. in decades, has ended. State health officials made the announcement Monday. They say there were nearly 1,000 confirmed cases over six months and at least 21 hospitalizations. No new cases associated with the outbreak have been reported in more than 42 days.

But health experts say the concern is not over.

Dr. Brannon Traxler with the South Carolina Department of Public Health says, “If we don’t continue to see increases in vaccination, I’m worried that we could see another large, maybe not this large, but hopefully not, but another large outbreak in the community.”

More than 90 percent of the cases nationwide have been among people who had not received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.