A Measles Outbreak Brings With It Echoes of the Pandemic

Late-night emails sent to parents informing them that someone in their child's classroom has been infected with measles. Pediatricians fielding calls from concerned mothers about the vaccination status of their children. An anxious father running into the waiting room of a hospital, a sick baby in his arms, asking for help.

What began in the fall as a trickle of measles infections in Spartanburg County, S.C., has since grown into an outbreak that has sickened more than 110 people, prompted more than 250 residents to quarantine and unsettled many more. Across the upstate region of South Carolina, a conservative stronghold where both the manufacturing industry and the population has boomed in recent years, many families have felt familiar echoes of the pandemic this week.