Measles Is Running Rampant, Should We Be Worried In So. Utah?

As the number of measles cases across the country continues to grow, health experts are urging people to make sure they're protected from the virus.

Dr. Dean Blumberg, who heads the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division at UC Davis, says the disease is airborne and can linger for hours.

"If somebody has measles and they walk into a room with 20 people who are susceptible, 19 of them will end up getting measles. That's how contagious it is," Blumberg said.

Health officials say people who had measles or were vaccinated as children should have lifelong immunity, but they can take something called a titer test to see if their blood has antibodies against the measles virus.

The CDC says there have been more than 300 confirmed measles cases across the country so far this year, surpassing the total for all of 2024.

An outbreak of measles in West Texas is now up to 279 cases.

That's roughly the same number of cases that was seen nationally, all of last year.

Statistics released Tuesday by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services show the fastest growth continues to be in a rural community that has the lowest immunization rates in the state.

So far, there have been no confirmed cases of measles in Utah in 2025, although the vaccination rate for measles is at an all-time low. Currently of all the children registered in any type of school for the 2024-2025 school year, only 46.1 percent have received all their vaccines.

Utah is fairly permissive when it comes to vaccine exemptions, allowing parents to opt out of vaccines for personal, medical or religious reasons.

About 16 percent of students in Washington County have not received the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.