- A 20- 40-year-old Utah County resident is the state’s first measles patient in two years.
- The patient hasn’t traveled recently, so the infection occurred in Utah and others may be at risk.
- Public visits by the patient before diagnosis could have unknowingly exposed others to the highly contagious disease.
At least one Utah County adult has measles, the first reported case in the Beehive State in the last two years. But the “at least” part comes with a warning from state public health officials. The person, who is between 20 and 40 years old, has not traveled out of state recently, so must have picked it up here.
The individual is “doing well and isolating, including having little contact with others,” according to Dr. Leisha Nolen, state epidemiologist. But before diagnosis, others could have been exposed, she said. The individual was known to have visited several public places in the days before measles was confirmed. So other people may have been exposed.
She said exposure can take place even days before early symptoms like runny nose, high fever, cough and red eyes show up.
Nolen, Department of Health and Human Services director Tracy Gruber and Dr. Stacey Bank, the department’s medical director, answered questions about the case and measles in general during a news conference Friday afternoon.
Gruber emphasized that because of the national outbreak of cases, Utah health officials had anticipated there would be local cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes 1,214 confirmed measles cases nationally as of June 19, across 36 jurisdictions, including Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
CDC said there have been 23 outbreaks this year, and nearly 90% of cases are outbreak-associated. Last year, there were 285 measles cases, so numbers are much higher this year, led by big outbreaks in Texas with more than 700 cases, New Mexico, where numbers hit 100 and Oklahoma, which has more than 50 cases.
All those numbers only reflect confirmed cases, not probable measles cases.
About measles
Symptoms typically appear a week or two after exposure. A high fever above 102.2°F is common. The early symptoms may not lead one to think of measles: cough, runny nose and red eyes. The rash usually shows up after four days of fever.
Measles is a very contagious disease and the illness can be miserable and even dangerous, including diarrhea, ear infections, pneumonia, encephalitis, seizures and even death. Those complications, per the department, are more common among children younger than 5 who have not been vaccinated and unvaccinated pregnant people and those with compromised immune systems.
Most people get over measles pretty well, but there are lots of exceptions. One in 20 people who contract measles end up in the hospital. Three people have died of measles in the United States in the last year.
Health officials are also warning unvaccinated people to talk to their doctor if they visited locations where the Utah County individual was before becoming ill. It’s still possible to infect others before symptoms arise. The individual is known to have visited Parkway Health Center in Orem on June 13 and Timpanogos Regional’s emergency room on June 14. No time was given for the former, but the exposure period for the emergency room visit would have been between 2:14 p.m. and 7:02 p.m.
Advice to be vaccinated
Nolen emphasized that the measles vaccine is the best way to protect people from measles. Two doses are 97% protective and a single dose is 93% protective. Plus, should someone who is vaccinated get measles, the symptoms are milder, she said.
Matt Caldwell, left, a Lubbock Fire Department official, administers a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to Clair May, 61, at the Lubbock Health Department, Feb. 26, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas. | Mary Conlon, Associated Press
Utah is generally pretty well protected, 90% of the population vaccinated. “Unfortunately, we have seen a decrease in the vaccine in our little kids in Utah. The numbers are still not super low, but they’re low enough to cause us to be concerned that there could be kids who are vulnerable to this, and certainly there are parts of our state or schools that have higher numbers of kids that are not vaccinated.“
She said health officials are “certainly concerned but reassured that most are protected,” she said.
CDC numbers suggest that Utah’s early grade school vaccination rate is lower than that in Texas, where the outbreak has been so high.
Nolen said anyone who doesn’t know their measles vaccine status can look it up in Utah or check with their health care provider. It’s also possible to get an antibody test to find out. But there’s no danger if someone who doesn’t know gets another shot.
For those who are immune compromised, Bank told Deseret News that a titer test would say something about their level of protection because it measures antibodies, but a new vaccination might not be the best plan if protection appears to be low. Those folks should talk to their doctor. The shot contains a bit of live virus.
That’s one of the reasons herd immunity is important. Some people, including very young children, cannot be vaccinated against measles, but being surrounded by people who won’t get measles because they already had it or are vaccine-protected and therefore can’t pass it on — herd immunity — is protective, too.
“The (measles-mumps-rubella) MMR vaccine has been used since the early 1970s. It has saved millions of lives and prevented significant suffering around the world,” Nolen said in a written statement. During the news conference, she called it “safe and effective,” noting decades of careful research that says the vaccine’s benefits outweigh risks.
People born before 1957 are considered immune now as they likely had measles as children, before a vaccine was readily available. Utah health and human services officials are urging anyone going out of state or out of the country to be vaccinated.
Many vaccination records are available online at https://immunize.utah.gov/usiis-parents-individuals/ or through the Docket app.