Thousands of unvaccinated students in the Upstate, a population that has grown rapidly in recent years, add to the potential threat to the larger community as South Carolina’s measles outbreak in the area continues to grow, a public health official said.

There have been 16 confirmed measles cases identified so far, with 12 tied to an outbreak at two schools in Spartanburg County and a Greenville County case tied to a local gym.

The five new cases identified this week were tied to the school outbreak and were detected among the more than 150 unvaccinated kids who had been quarantining at home after the first seven cases were identified, the S.C. Department of Public Health reported.

The Spartanburg and Greenville county school systems have some of the highest rates of religious exemption

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