Young families keep toddlers close amid Spartanburg measles outbreak
Size two combat boots waiting for little toes peek out of a yellow clearance bin. Toddlers race through tight aisles swollen with lightly-used baby bibs and onesies. It’s sale day at Once Upon a Child, a children’s clothing resale store on the southwest edge of Spartanburg.
Natalie and Felix Roman walk out with full arms: Natalie carries a heap of colorful cottons; Felix wrangles Everett, a wiggly 1-year-old with dense, feathery eyelashes and a wide smile.
It’s a rare outing for the young family, who lately have been keeping Everett close to home amid an ongoing measles outbreak that has turned routine errands into careful calculations for many families with young children.
The Romans have narrowed their world. They slip fabric covers over shopping cart seats, keep play dates small and mostly stay home. Everett doesn’t attend daycare. Natalie worries about measles, but also flu and RSV — illnesses that can hit infants hardest. Everett is just shy of the 1-year mark when pediatricians recommend the first dose of the MMR vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella.
“I haven’t gotten (The MMR vaccine) for him yet because we don’t really go out,” Natalie said. “We did look into it a lot.”
Natalie says she does plan to vaccinate Everett, but it’s hard to see her baby in pain. Babies are often given shots in their arm or upper thigh, and last time Everett got shots in his leg the muscle pain kept him from walking for a couple of days, Natalie said. That was tough.
“As a mom, it hurts me,” she said.
For parents of infants and toddlers — especially those too young to be fully vaccinated or just on the cusp of the recommendations — the outbreak has reshaped daily routines. Most South Carolina measles cases have occurred among children and teens, and Spartanburg County is the epicenter. Several families told The State they are postponing visits with loved ones, staying closer to home, and approaching everyday errands with extra care.
Measles impacts daily life for some
The virus that causes measles infects the respiratory system and is highly contagious. It typically causes fever and a blotchy red rash that spreads from the face across the body, but can also lead to serious complications including pneumonia and encephalitis — a potentially fatal swelling of the brain. Children under five are particularly vulnerable. Last year, a measles outbreak in Texas killed three people, two of them children.
About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people will end up hospitalized from measles, and as many as 1 out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since the first case was reported in South Carolina in July, there have been 933 confirmed measles cases statewide. The vast majority — 859 cases — were among the unvaccinated. Spartanburg County has been the hardest hit, with 890 cases alone, and most infections have been in children and teens ages 0 to 15.
People have been exposed in everyday places, from grocery stores to restaurants, and dozens of students across Spartanburg area schools have been quarantined since the outbreak began.
Music teacher Garrett Gibson has seen that play out in real time, and he’s watched the outbreak have a real impact on his daily life. He teaches private lessons for everything from piano to mandolin to voice coaching, and many of his students attend Spartanburg-area schools.
Several of his student attend schools where measles cases have been reported, and at least one of his students was home-bound after a measles exposure.
“We don’t go out very much,” Gibson said, holding Kit, a nearly-2-year-old with big blue eyes and bouncy curls. Today, Gibson is taking Kit to page through drawings and stories at Hub City Books on Spartanburg’s Main Street. It’s quiet today, overcast after a morning rain. It felt like a good opportunity to get Kit out of the house.
“He hasn’t gotten to go many places lately,” Gibson said.
Gibson, like the Romans, has been keeping Kit at home a lot more often since the measles outbreak in Spartanburg began. Two years old in April, Kit has received his first MMR shot, but he hasn’t yet gotten the booster, which kids typically get around 4 years old.
It’s not just Gibson. His brother and sister-in-law who live in Greenville had a baby two weeks ago, but Gibson doesn’t know when he’ll get to meet his nephew. Gibson’s biggest worry is that people will villainize the vaccine like what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it’s mainly people not doing their research,” he said.
Vaccination rates fall, but the trend is shifting
Longtime pharmacist Houa Lo works the front desk of his fledgling store Advanced RxCare Pharmacy in a Boiling Springs shopping plaza just north of Spartanburg.
The white exposed shelves behind him store medications of every stripe. A flyer taped to the cash register advertises flu shots. He isn’t carrying the MMR vaccine because no one has asked for it, he said. There doesn’t seem to be much demand among adults, Lo thinks because most people living in the U.S. had their shots as children alongside a slate of other immunizations required to attend public schools.
“It’s not like COVID where it surprised everyone,” said Lo.
But vaccination rates have fallen in South Carolina, creating the conditions for the highly contagious measles virus to spread amongst the unimmunized.
By the end of 2025, South Carolina’s overall measles vaccination rate had fallen to around 90%, which is below the required 95% threshold that experts say is required to limit community spread.
South Carolina had a 95% measles vaccination rate among kindergarteners in the 2019-20 school year. By the 2023-24 school year, that rate fell to 92.1%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That data follows a national trend. Nationwide, measles vaccination rates among kindergartners fell to 92.7% in the 2023-24 school year, down from 95.2% during the 2019-20 school year, according to the national data.
Lo said he does believe people in the community are concerned about the measles, but because the vast majority of the public was vaccinated as children, he agreed the largest concern is for kids, and for pregnant women and the immunocompromised who can’t get the vaccine because of potential complications.
Health experts have been urging the unvaccinated to get their shots, which can still be given in adulthood. And people are taking that advice in.
In January, there was a 72% increase statewide in MMR vaccinations, and a 162% increase in Spartanburg County, said state epidemiologist Linda Bell during a media briefing last week. Nearly 17,000 measles vaccines were given this January, that’s over 7,000 more doses of the vaccine given in January 2025, with about 48% of that total going to children under 4 years old.
For families like the Romans and Gibsons, the outbreak is more than just statistics. It means uncertainty and re-evaluating every-day chores.
A cartoon-eyed horse beckons to Everett Roman on the sidewalk outside the Spartanburg clothing store. Felix lifts his son onto the plastic steed and they play pretend while Natalie looks on. She’ll wipe his hands down afterward. She isn’t panicked about the measles, but she is cautious.
“I think it blows over,” she said. But for now, she’ll keep her baby close to home.
