Hundreds of U.S. students quarantined amid measles outbreaks

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A bubbling measles outbreak in the upstate of South Carolina has forced 153 unvaccinated children out of the classroom and into quarantine for a minimum of 21 days.

In Minnesota, where a small outbreak has been growing for the last month, 118 students are also under quarantine in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area after being exposed to the highly contagious virus, health officials said Friday.

The restrictions mean three weeks of remote learning as parents monitor for fever, rash and other symptoms.

“Communities are having to bear the price of quarantining so many children,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “Expect more of the same. This is going to happen more and more frequently.”

Active, ongoing transmissions
On Thursday, the South Carolina Department of Public Health said that a measles case had been diagnosed in Greenville County, without any known link to seven other cases in neighboring Spartanburg County.

“What this new case tells us is that there is active, unrecognized community transmission of measles occurring,” Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist for the South Carolina Department of Public Health, said during a press briefing Thursday.

The South Carolina cases have been identified in two schools (one elementary school and one charter school with students from kindergarten through 12th grade).

Unvaccinated children who were exposed to the virus will be “excluded” from school for three weeks, the length of time it could take for a measles exposure to cause symptoms, Bell said.

“Those measures will help us be effective in preventing the spread of measles virus in those schools and in our communities,” she said.

According to NBC News data, the K-12 vaccination rate for measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) in Spartanburg County was 90% for the 2024-25 school year, below the 95% level doctors say is needed to protect against an outbreak. In neighboring Greenville County, the MMR vaccination rate was 90.5%.

The Minnesota health department said 20 cases have been confirmed so far this year.

Along the Arizona-Utah border, 103 people have been diagnosed with measles in one of the largest multistate outbreaks of 2025. Utah health authorities have also reported 14 cases in other parts of the state.

School district leaders in affected areas of southwest Utah sent letters to parents about the outbreak, said David Heaton, public information officer for the Southwest Utah Public Health Department.

But it was up to families, Heaton said, to determine whether their kids should stay home from school.

As childhood vaccination rates drop in the U.S., measles, which had been eliminated domestically for the last 25 years, is increasingly finding pockets of people vulnerable to infection.

Symptoms of measles can include:
Headache, fever that may spike to over 104 degrees

Cough, runny nose

Red, watery eyes

Tiny white spots inside the mouth

Rash that begins on the scalp and travels down to the neck, trunk, arms and legs.

If outbreaks continue until the end of January — coinciding with the anniversary of the start of West Texas’ massive outbreak — the United States will lose its status of measles elimination.

South Carolina's measles outbreak has grown to 15 cases, state health officials reported Friday, a small increase from a few days ago.

The new cases are among those who'd been exposed to the virus at school, but developed symptoms in quarantine. It's not known if they're adults or children, but 139 students are still currently in quarantine in the state.

"We are fortunate that those we have identified as being exposed to measles are complying with our guidance to quarantine for the period that they could not expose others," Dr. Linda Bell, epidemiologist for South Carolina, said in a statement to NBC News.

Those who aren't vaccinated against measles are recommended to stay home, away from others for a 21-day quarantine. That’s how long it can take to develop measles symptoms — high fever, red eyes and a rash — after being exposed.

"We recognize that quarantining is challenging for families and communities, and we continue to strongly encourage getting vaccinated, which would make quarantining unnecessary due to the MMR vaccine’s proven effectiveness for decades," Bell said, referring to the measles-mumps-rubella shot.

As measles keeps popping up in some pockets of the United States, the possibility of being exposed to the highly contagious virus continues. At least 1,596 measles cases have been confirmed in 2025, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it's unclear how many people have been asked to quarantine.

In Ohio, where five cases in the central part of the state have been reported within the last 2½ weeks, quarantine for 122 people was expected to end Friday. A 1-year-old had to be hospitalized for several days after developing pneumonia.

The quarantine disruptions are prompting some pushback in the affected communities.

“For many in our community, they’re frustrated, like, ‘Why don’t you just get your kid vaccinated?’” Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health commissioner for Columbus, Ohio, said in an interview. Measles exposures, including one at an early childhood learning center late last month, triggered the 21-day quarantine, she said.

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“When you make a decision not to vaccinate your child or to delay the vaccination, you’re not just impacting your child and your household. You can be impacting that entire community,” Roberts said. “It’s a ripple effect that I don’t think the average individual who makes this decision understands.”

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, 118 kids are now back in school after they were exposed to an outbreak of 20 measles cases. Their quarantine ended Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the Minnesota Health Department.

Still, public health officials are bracing for future outbreaks.

“My concern is that this is going to keep happening, that this is going to be our new normal,” Roberts said.

Children who have been given the MMR vaccine don't have to quarantine if exposed. Two doses, given around age 1 and again around age 5, are 97% effective in preventing measles infections, according to the CDC.

I wonder if any measles vaccine given in the 1960s is still effective. Is the reason until now the reason few were getting the measles until now is because the vaccines are still effective or herd immunity?