A fast-moving measles outbreak in South Carolina reached a grim milestone recently: It is now the biggest outbreak in the U.S. in a quarter century.
It’s the latest public health record to be broken as vaccine hesitancy and increasingly permissive state laws — both now intensified by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — create more and larger pockets of disease vulnerability in the U.S.
Last year, a measles outbreak in Texas led to 762 infections and the first deaths from the disease in the U.S. in a decade. Nationwide, cases hit a 34-year high. The U.S.’s measles-free status, established in 2000, is likely to fall next — a fate that will be determined in April when a team from the Pan American Health Organization, the regional office for the World Health Organization, meets.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.