Measles cases in the U.S. continue to rise. As of April 24, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there have been nearly 900 confirmed cases of measles across 30 states this year. Most of those have been in children and teenagers, and almost all have been in unvaccinated people.
The CDC said three people have died this year from the disease.
There are no reported cases in Utah so far; the geographically closest cases are in Colorado and New Mexico.
Measles is a highly contagious, airborne disease with no treatment. The CDC said if one person is infected, up to nine out of 10 people nearby will catch it if they’re not vaccinated.
Wasatch County Health Department nursing director Gina Tuttle said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Friday, April 25 that the surge in cases is a result of low vaccination rates.
“We’re looking at families who’ve decided not to immunize their children with the MMR vaccine,” she said. “And we’re seeing pockets, of course, in Texas, where there’s just a low vaccination rate.”
The MMR vaccine inoculates people against measles, mumps and rubella. It’s 97% effective at preventing measles after two doses.
The CDC said a community needs a 95% vaccination rate to achieve herd immunity – the threshold at which it’s difficult for a disease to spread.
Neither Summit nor Wasatch County has reached that threshold. For the 2024-25 school year, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services reported that 89.3% of Summit County kindergartners had their MMR vaccines. In Wasatch County, it was 88.8%.
Tuttle said the number of families seeking vaccine exemptions for religious or personal reasons has soared since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I looked at the exemption rates for our county, just for MMR, and that’s 11.1%,” she said. “Pre-COVID, we were 4.5%. We really need to help families understand more about vaccines and be able to present it to them in a great way.”
She said the health department’s goal is to answer any questions people have about vaccines and assuage their fears.
“We did get to see what parents are thinking and feeling based off a survey around vaccines, and No. 1 was fear,” she said. “No. 2 is that they don’t think it’s necessary. I think that the education sometimes helps if you’re open to learning.”
Tuttle said no matter a patient’s age, the health department is willing to work with them and get them up to date on vaccines.
For adults without insurance, the measles vaccine is available for $12.
Click here for more information from the Wasatch County Health Department.
