A growing measles outbreak has forced hundreds of unvaccinated children out of classrooms in several states, prompting widespread quarantines and renewed warnings from health experts about declining vaccination rates.
In South Carolina, 153 unvaccinated students in Greenville and Spartanburg counties have been ordered to quarantine for at least 21 days after exposure to measles, according to state health officials, NBC News reported.
The cases span two schools — one elementary and one K-12 charter school — and include a newly diagnosed infection in Greenville County with no link to earlier cases.
“What this new case tells us is that there is active, unrecognized community transmission of measles occurring,” said Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina’s state epidemiologist.
She said that unvaccinated children who have been exposed to the virus must stay at home for three weeks to prevent further spread of the highly contagious disease.
“Those measures will help us be effective in preventing the spread of the measles virus in those schools and in our communities,” Bell said.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, 118 students in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area are also quarantined after being exposed to the highly contagious virus amid a monthlong outbreak, health officials said Friday.
Students there will transition to remote learning while parents monitor for fever, rash, and other symptoms.
“Communities are having to bear the price of quarantining so many children,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.
“Expect more of the same. This is going to happen more and more frequently.”
Along the Arizona-Utah border, 103 people have been diagnosed in one of the largest multistate measles outbreaks of 2025.
Further, in Utah, health officials have confirmed 14 additional cases in other parts of the state.
School districts in the affected areas have alerted parents, but decisions on whether children stay home are being left to families, said David Heaton, a spokesman for the Southwest Utah Public Health Department.
The resurgence of measles — declared eliminated in the United States 25 years ago — is being blamed on falling childhood vaccination rates.
MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccination rates in Spartanburg County are at 90%, below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity.
Greenville County’s rate is only slightly higher at 90.5%.
Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 1,563 measles cases so far in 2025 — most linked to domestic outbreaks rather than international travel.
If the outbreaks continue into early next year, the U.S. could lose its measles elimination status for the first time in a generation.
Measles infections can cause severe complications, including brain inflammation, blindness, and deafness.
An NBC investigation found vaccination declines in more than three-quarters of U.S. counties since 2019, and two-thirds of states now fall short of herd immunity coverage.
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