South Carolina's measles outbreak jumped to Washington state 5 times in 2 weeks

In a second importation event, South Carolina residents visited public places while infectious. As a result, four residents with close contact with the South Carolina visitors fell ill. While infectious, the four residents visited schools, healthcare facilities, and a church. Nine of their contacts and one person exposed in a public location fell ill, leading to a total cluster of 14 cases that spanned January 15 to February 17.

In the third importation event, two state residents returned from South Carolina and fell ill on January 15 to 16. No additional cases were linked to these residents. Similarly, a fourth importation event occurred when a resident returned from travel. The person adhered to isolation and quarantine recommendations, and no cases were linked to this one.

In the fifth importation event, a Washington state resident returned from out-of-state travel where they had contact with ill contacts and fell ill themselves on January 19. While contagious, they visited a school and a healthcare facility. Six close contacts fell ill. In all, this cluster of seven cases spanned January 19 to January 29. The genome sequences from five of the cases were nearly identical to those seen in South Carolina.

Officials credit basic public health work of quarantines, isolation, and contact tracing with keeping the virus from spreading farther than it did.

Contradicting Kennedy

While the study highlights how readily this virus can spread among states amid declining vaccination, it also contradicts a common talking point from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaccine advocate, has downplayed the current measles surge in the US and aggressively defended against suggestions that his decades of anti-vaccine misinformation and disinformation have contributed to the surge in cases and drop in vaccination.

Instead, Kennedy claims that there is a “global outbreak” and the US is “doing a better job than any country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak.” Both claims are false. Dozens of other countries have lower case rates than the US. While some countries, including neighboring Canada and Mexico, are also seeing large increases in cases, the soaring case tally in the US is not being driven by international imports, but by domestic spread in under-vaccinated communities.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 18 of the country’s 4,588 confirmed measles cases this year were reported among international visitors. Of all the cases, 4,404 (96 percent) are linked to a domestic outbreak. The US has had 43 new outbreaks this year.