Federal health investigators known as “disease detectives” will deploy to South Carolina next week to assist with the nation’s most significant measles outbreak in more than three decades, state health officials announced Wednesday.
Three specialized officers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemic Intelligence Service will focus on examining information gathered during the prolonged health crisis, according to Dr. Linda Bell, who serves as South Carolina’s state epidemiologist.
The deployment comes after a dozen public health specialists from the nonprofit CDC Foundation arrived in South Carolina last week to provide additional support. The CDC Foundation operates as an independent organization established by Congress to assist the CDC’s mission.
Dr. Bell explained that while CDC Foundation personnel have been handling “day to day work that supports those disease containment efforts,” the incoming federal officers will concentrate on processing the extensive amount of data accumulated over nearly 22 weeks since the outbreak began.
State health department officials noted last week that the CDC’s typical practice of providing short-term deployments lasting only a few weeks does not adequately address the ongoing operational needs required for sustained outbreak response efforts.
