More than 250 people have been quarantined in South Carolina amid a measles outbreak driven by low vaccination rates, experts say. In upstate South Carolina, 111 people have been diagnosed with the disease, of which 105 are thought to be unvaccinated. The Washington Post reports that 20 of the 111 cases involve children under the age of five. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist at the state Department of Public Health, said in a news briefing that 27 new cases had presented in six days, while 254 people had been placed into quarantine. Sixteen of the cases came from a single congregation at the Way of Truth Church in the northern city of Inman. She said that the state’s vaccination coverage is “lower than hoped for.” Responding to questions from the press, Bell said, “Accelerating is an accurate term. That is a spike in cases we are concerned about.” It represents a worrying new chapter in the outbreak that blighted the southwest and midwest this year, despite measles having been eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
Read it at The Washington Post
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