PRICE — A measles outbreak continues to spread across Utah, with new cases reported in Cache and Carbon counties.
At least one of those cases is not following the trend health care professionals are seeing — those who are not vaccinated are reporting cases of measles.
The case reported in Price is from a vaccinated person, something not completely improbable but, for one nursing director, surprising.
Sara Braby has spent 15 years working at the Southeast Utah Health Department and has never seen a measles outbreak.
"It's crazy to me that something like measles can come back around, something that's gone for so long," Braby said. "And we're seeing it now as prevalent as we are, and it just keeps increasing. It's a little bit hard to wrap your brain around sometimes."
In February, 92 new cases were reported in the Beehive State. Fifteen of those cases were reported at the same location: wrestling matches.
"It seems like the school tournament events are a big hot spot for these types of cases," Braby said.
The first week of March, there were two new cases.
One person from Price went to four locations with measles:
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 150 S. 500 East, Price; March 1, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
- Deseret Industries at 1161 E. Main St., Price; Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Walmart Supercenter at 255 State Highway 55, Price; Feb. 28, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Dollar Tree at 744 W. Price River Dr., Price; Feb. 28, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
"We give them a time and a date so people can be aware and know if they've been exposed, because the biggest thing we want to do is watch for symptoms," Braby said.
If anyone was at those exposure locations, she said, they don't need to go in for a measles swab test. Instead, Braby said to watch for symptoms over the next 21 days.
"People know their bodies, they know what's going on," Braby said. "If you notice you're feeling different, just be aware of those symptoms."
Exposure doesn't require quarantine if someone is watching their symptoms, Braby said.
For those vaccinated, she said it's harder to get measles. The first dose of measles vaccine is 93% effective, and the second dose is 97% effective, according to Braby.
"Measles is a highly effective vaccine, but there's still that chance that you can get the disease," she said. "If you have that protection, it helps your body fight that disease, so your symptoms, the severity of the disease, are never as bad."
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.
