(The Center Square) – Utah could be on pace for a measles outbreak unlike any since the 1970s.
State health officials have identified 115 people with measles. That’s an increase of 25 people in the last three weeks.
“The thing that’s most concerning to us is while this outbreak originally was located mostly in southern Utah, we’re now seeing it expand into other areas,” Dr. Leisha D. Nolen, a Utah state epidemiologist, told The Center Square.
Of the cases reported thus far, 82 are in Southwest Utah. Ten are in Utah County, followed by nine in Wasatch County. Bear River has four cases. Salt Lake County and Southeast Utah both have three cases, while Central Utah and Davis County have two cases each.
“We’ve talked to people who we have been able to contact, and we do find that most of them have had contact with someone or have been down in Southern Utah,” said Nolen. “So it does seem to be a person-to-person spread and just in-state travel.”
A dashboard operated by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services shows these numbers, and HHS updates the information on a weekly basis.
Officials say measles can remain airborne up to two hours after an infected person has exited a room. Symptoms are known to start seven to 14 days after exposure and include high fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes and rash.
Utah is recommending people get vaccinated for measles.
“We know that a lot of our population – in fact, over 90% of our population – is already protected, so they don’t have any concerns and really can go about their regular life,” said Nolen. “The people we’re most worried about are those people who are not protected because they have not been vaccinated.”
So far, no deaths have been reported in this outbreak. Still, Nolen said that over 20 clinic waiting rooms in Utah have been exposed to measles. Utah has also had “a number of daycare exposures.” That, said Nolen, puts the youngest Utahns at risk.
“Last time we’ve had over 100 (measles cases) was 1996,” said Nolen. “We think we’re going to break that very soon, and it’s probably back into the 70s.”
