More than 680 people have contracted measles in Utah over the past year, with the state's first outbreak beginning one year ago on June 20, 2025, and health officials warn that vulnerable communities—including young babies, pregnant people, and those with weakened immune systems—remain at serious risk as vaccination rates fall dangerously short of protective thresholds.
Unlike measles outbreaks in Texas, South Carolina and Arizona, the spread in Utah has been tough to contain to one region, infecting undervaccinated communities in nearly every county. Measles popped up in healthcare settings, big-box stores and restaurants, and youth sporting events. In February, an exposure at a state high school wrestling championship sparked at least 46 cases among attendees.
Who Bears the Burden
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to medicine. It causes a tell-tale rash, high fevers, strong cough, ear infections and diarrhea. While most recover, some, including young babies, pregnant people and those with weak immune systems, are at higher risk of developing dangerous complications like pneumonia, brain swelling, blindness or even dying. Even healthy people can develop issues years down the road, including a rare but fatal degenerative brain disease that manifests about a decade after infection.
Overall, measles infections hit 22 of the state's 29 counties. The worst spread has been in the southwestern part of the state, where 265 people have fallen ill with the vaccine-preventable disease since last summer. In the state's rural northeast, Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties, collectively dubbed the "tricounty" health region, has seen the second-largest decline in childhood vaccination rates in the state. More than 16% of the region's kindergarteners were missing their measles vaccines in the last school year, according to state data.
The Protection Gap
Statewide, 12.8% were missing their vaccine, putting the state far short of the 95% vaccination rate needed to prevent measles outbreaks. The measles vaccine is safe and 97% protective after two doses. State epidemiologist Leisha Nolen said there is little opportunity to rest, expressing worry that the start of school and arrival of colder weather in the fall will cause measles to surge again. "It's still here, it's still transmitting," she said. "We just need those few cases to hit the wrong community and it could flare up really big again."
The TriCounty Health Department logged 74 cases of measles this spring, after people who got sick at the youth wrestling tournament spread the virus in school and later within their households. The frontier region had seen a rise in vaccine hesitancy for some time, said Sydnee Lyons, the health department's public information officer.
Public Health Response
Despite the large number of cases, local and state health officials consider TriCounty's measles response a success. Health officials focused efforts on mitigating the inevitable spread. Unvaccinated students were excluded from in-person school and people who were sick were told to isolate themselves. And their appeal to care for one's neighbors led to more people coming in to get vaccinated, officials said.
TriCounty's infectious disease specialist Cyndie Mattinson recalled a parent who told a school nurse she didn't want to talk to the health department because "she was worried that we would be angry with her and be judgmental because her children were unvaccinated." The nurse vouched for the health department staff, and told the mom to let her know if she felt judged. Mattinson ultimately had a great conversation with the mother. "The perceptions were changed that we weren't out there to police, we were there to be a help and a resource to the community," Mattinson said.
National Implications
Utah's lengthy battle with measles will likely affect whether the U.S. can keep its measles-free designation. Public health officials consider measles to be eliminated from a country when it shows it stopped continuous spread within local communities for at least a year. The national measles case count was 2,104 as of June 18, nearly surpassing last year's record total.
Utah has fought measles for a year, but it's not clear if the earliest clusters are connected with the major outbreak on the Utah-Arizona state line, which was detected less than one year ago in August, Nolen said. But since then, most of the state's measles cases have come from within Utah, not from other parts of the country. International health experts will gather later this year in November to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles elimination status. Canada lost its status last year after ongoing outbreaks.
In Utah, doctors continue to reassure scared patients and lobby for better public health policy. Dr. Ellie Brownstein, president-elect of the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a pediatrician in Salt Lake City, spent the height of the outbreak opposing a bill that would have made school vaccine waivers easier to get. It failed, but she said there hasn't been a clear cultural reckoning over measles' resurgence. "I don't know that we get it to end," Brownstein said. "I don't know that we're going to get this genie back in the box because there's enough people out there to spread it."
Why This Matters:
Utah's year-long measles crisis exposes how declining vaccination rates create a public health emergency that disproportionately threatens the most vulnerable—infants too young to be vaccinated, pregnant people, and immunocompromised individuals who depend on community immunity for protection. With statewide vaccination rates at 87.2% and some rural regions seeing only 84% coverage, communities fall dangerously short of the 95% threshold needed to protect those who cannot protect themselves. The outbreak's spread across 22 of 29 counties demonstrates how vaccine-preventable diseases exploit gaps in public health infrastructure, particularly in underserved rural areas. The potential loss of U.S. measles elimination status would represent a significant retreat in collective health protections built over decades of public investment in immunization programs, while the failure of legislative efforts to strengthen vaccine requirements suggests that without stronger institutional safeguards, communities will continue to face preventable health crises that place children and vulnerable populations at unnecessary risk.