Feb 3 (Reuters) – South Carolina reported 876 measles cases on Tuesday, state health data showed, including 29 additional infections since Friday, as officials warned the widening outbreak could last weeks or months amid lagging vaccine uptake.
There are 354 people in quarantine and 22 in isolation. The latest end of quarantine for these is February 24, the state health department said.
The outbreak, which began in October, has been centered in the northwest part of the state, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Health.
The health department confirmed a case of measles in a Sumter County resident but could not say whether this new case was linked to the outbreak centered around Spartanburg County or if the exposure was from measles occurring in other locations.
Of those infected, 800 were unvaccinated, 16 were partially vaccinated with one of the recommended two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccines, 22 were fully vaccinated and 38 had unknown vaccination status.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
