Patients say measles 'worse than expected' as Utah hits 350+ infections, doctors say
by Curtis Booker ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Utah reports 358 measles cases since June 2025, with 120 hospitalizations.
- Officials urge vaccinations, noting 90% of Utahns are vaccinated yet cases persist.
- Doctors emphasize measles severity; patients report illness worse than expected.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's ongoing measles outbreak now stands at 358 confirmed cases since last June, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services' latest report.
"It is, at this time a real threat in our state and something we can do to stop it," said Dr. Leisha Nolen, state epidemiologist, at a press conference Thursday pleading for people to get themselves and their children vaccinated.
Of those 358 confirmed cases in Utah, over 120 people have been hospitalized, 31 required overnight hospital care and three had to be placed in intensive care units, according to Nolen.
Recent exposures have been linked to large school events in January and February — including state wrestling championships at Utah Valley University, which resulted in multiple people being diagnosed with the illness.
Three new cases confirmed in eastern Utah were also connected to a high school wrestling tournament last month, the Tri-County Health Department in Vernal announced Thursday. The recent infections brings the total number of cases in that area to five.
The southwest Utah health district continues to lead the state's case count with 203 infections since the start of the outbreak. Fifty people in Utah County have contracted the illness, followed by 44 people in Salt Lake County, 23 in central Utah and nine in Wasatch County, rounding out the top five areas of the state being hit the hardest with measles, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services website reports.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services says around 90% people in the state are vaccinated, and a majority of the state's cases are people who are not vaccinated.
However, of Utah's total cases, Nolen said around 8-10% of those individuals were vaccinated.
"It's unfortunate that we do have some people who are vaccinated get measles, but we know there is no such thing as a perfect vaccine," she said.
Still, public health officials contend that two doses of the MMR vaccine is the best defense against measles.
'A severe illness'
Nolen said she recently visited one of the communities in Utah seeing high numbers of measles to talk with people who have been infected about their experience with the virus. Though she didn't specify which area, Nolen said the people she spoke with told her that contracting measles was much worse than they expected.
"It is not a mild infection, it is not a mild virus; it is a severe illness. And they kept on telling me they wish they'd known beforehand how bad measles was, so that they could have protected their family," she said.
Amanda Jocelyn, a nurse practitioner in southern Utah, also shared her experience of seeing over a dozen patients with measles.
Jocelyn said she was shocked at just how ill some people became and the amount of time it took for them to recover.
"The children I am seeing in (the) clinic with measles are very, very ill; and in several cases, their parents and their caregivers get ill as well," she said.
Jocelyn said some of the symptoms she has seen patients develop include high fevers, severe coughing, and pneumonia, among other serious complications.
She also stressed the need for preventive measures among those who believe they may have been exposed, such as staying out of public spaces, contacting their health provider to seek care and steering clear of vulnerable people such as young children, the elderly and expecting mothers.
Jocelyn also echoed Nolen's overall message of reminding people that the best way to protect against measles is the MMR vaccine, which the Utah Department of Health and Human Services said is 97% effective after two doses.
"I can give a family and I can give patients all the information that I feel like that they need in order to make decisions, but ultimately, it is the family's choice and decision how to care for their child and how to proceed," Jocelyn said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Curtis Booker is a reporter for KSL.