Utah measles outbreak speeds up but there are few changes to daily life

Utah’s measles outbreak is speeding up as it spills into the eighth month, getting so bad that some local health officials have turned to talk radio to get the message about vaccination.

Utah’s measles outbreak is speeding up as it spills into the eighth month, getting so bad that some local health officials have turned to talk radio to get the message about vaccination to more people.

As South Carolina seems to be getting a handle on its outbreak — the largest in the United States in three decades — measles in Utah is raging through unvaccinated children in several communities. There have been almost 100 confirmed illnesses in Utah in the last three weeks and likely many more families have been affected, experts say. More people have caught measles in the first few months of this year than all of last year.

Since measles began spreading in Utah last summer, state health officials have barely acknowledged it. Health officials in the southwest corner of the state, which still accounts for the bulk of cases, haven’t been holding vaccine clinics, they say, because most residents aren’t interested in getting the shots.

During the state’s first media briefing March 5, state epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen pleaded with residents to get vaccinated. A nurse practitioner recounted in detail several severe measles cases she’s treated. A number of families who had coped with the virus “didn’t realize how bad” measles was, Nolen said.

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services has updated its website weekly but has otherwise remained largely silent. The agency hasn’t posted about the outbreak on its Facebook and X platforms since the outbreak began. The agency declined a request for interview.