Top uni confirms deadly Victorian disease on campus – expert warns ‘it’ll get a lot worse’
A fast-growing measles outbreak has spread to a university campus.
Measles cases have risen in recent years as vaccine uptake dropped. (Image: Getty)
An outbreak of measles in the US has spread to a South Carolina university, where one person has been confirmed to be isolating after contracting the highly contagious disease. Health experts are investigating a fast-moving outbreak in South Carolina, where more than 200 new cases were diagnosed in the last week.
The state’s Clemson University confirmed “a case of measles of an individual affiliated with the University”, adding that the infected person was isolating and contact tracing was under way. Around 30,000 students attend the university.
A drop in uptake of the MMR vaccine has been linked to the latest outbreaks. (Image: Getty)
More than 500 cases of measles have been diagnosed in South Carolina since autumn, with at least eight victims needing hospital treatment.
Across the US, some 2,065 measles cases were reported across 43 states in 2025, the highest total for more than 30 years.
Experts warned that the figures were likely to underestimate the true scale of the outbreak as some infected people may not see a doctor.
Dr Johnathon Elkes, an emergency medicine physician at Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina, said last week: “We feel like we’re really kind of staring over the edge, knowing that this is about to get a lot worse.”
Health officials have said that the majority of patients reported in South Carolina are children and teenagers, and most are unvaccinated.
Measles was a common a deadly illness during the 19th century, but is resurfacing now due to falling vaccination rates.
The UK Health Security Agency warned last year that more than one in 10 eligible children under the age of five in England had not had the MMR vaccine, or were only partially vaccinated.
The virus is highly contagious, so even a small decline in MMR uptake can lead to a rise in cases, it said.
There were 2,911 laboratory-confirmed measles cases in England in 2024, the highest since 2012.
