After SC measles outbreak declined, a new case is found in a new part of the state
After seemingly getting a measles outbreak in one part of the state under control, S.C. officials have identified a new case in another part of the state.
The S.C. Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that a new measles case has been identified in Hampton County.
The diagnosis has led a total of eight people who had been exposed to the individual to go into quarantine until June 21 in order to stop the spread of the virus in the Lowcountry.
The latest case comes a little more than a month after state health officials had finally seen a drop-off in new measles cases from an outbreak centered in Spartanburg County that had sickened almost 1,000 people. But the Hampton County case appears to be unrelated to that outbreak which bedeviled the state for months.
Instead, a media release from the Department of Public Health notes that the latest case is an individual who had previously traveled internationally. The person is unvaccinated and had no prior measles infection that could have given them immunity.
After the person went to a local doctor with symptoms, a lab test confirmed the presence of measles on May 31. An investigation revealed that no public exposures have occurred, the department said.
“With measles continuing to circulate in the United States and across the globe, there remains a risk of cases being diagnosed here in South Carolina due to travel,” said acting DPH Director Brannon Traxler in an emailed statement. “Vaccination remains the most effective way to protect yourself and those around you from measles infection.”
Traxler has only been head of the agency for a few weeks, since former director Ed Simmer stepped away because of opposition to his confirmation in the S.C. Senate due to his past encouragement of vaccination against COVID-19. Traxler was previously the deputy director of health promotion and services and the state’s chief medical officer.
S.C. doctors warn that measles can lead to serious medical complications, including pneumonia, hearing loss, swelling around the brain resulting in intellectual disability, and even death.
The once common childhood disease had been all but eliminated in the United States by the year 2000 due to a highly effective vaccination program, only for the disease to make a comeback in recent years as vaccine hesitancy has spread through the population.
The measles vaccine is normally given to children in two rounds, one between the ages of 12 and 15 months and another between the ages of 4 to 6 years.
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