- Utah confirmed 44 measles cases in 2025 compared to zero in 2024.
- Most cases are in southwest Utah near Arizona’s ongoing measles outbreak.
- Measles vaccine exemption rates for Utah kindergartners exceed 10%.
Utah has 44 confirmed measles cases so far in 2025, according to the weekly update of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services measles dashboard.
No cases were confirmed in 2024.
According to the counts as of September 30, the majority of Utah cases — 30 — were in the southwest region near Arizona, a state that’s had 59 cases. The Arizona Department of Health reports an ongoing outbreak of measles, with all but four of its cases in Mohave County.
The outbreak spanning northern Arizona and southwest Utah is among the largest in the U.S. at the moment.
Utah’s other 14 cases include four in northern Utah, three in southeast Utah and seven in Utah County. Measles detection in wastewater samples found virus shed in the same areas, but it doesn’t say how many people in each area had measles. The water detection result is the same for 1 or 100.
Exposure then symptom watch
There are three active symptom watch periods, but they’re nearly over. People might have been exposed to measles at the Budge Clinic in Logan if they were there Sept. 15 between 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The last day to watch for symptoms from that is Oct. 6.
Someone with measles was at Water Canyon High School in Hildale on Sept. 12, so others there at the same time have risk of exposure. That symptom watch ends Oct. 3.
Finally, folks at Chick-fil-A in Providence, Utah, Sept. 11 between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. can stop checking for symptoms after Oct. 2.
Eight other exposures are no longer being watched as enough time has passed.
About measles
Measles symptoms typically include a high fever (101°F or more), along with cough, runny nose, watery eyes and rash that starts at the hairline most of the time and then spreads down.
The viral illness can cause complications, some very serious. Those include pneumonia, hospitalization, brain swelling that can lead to deafness and other problems, pregnancy complications, seizures and a weakened immune system that can linger for a long time and increase the risk of infections. Some people die.
There’s no specific treatment for measles; rather, symptoms are managed.
The national count
As of Sept. 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 1,544 cases nationally. The CDC said it is also aware of probable cases, but its count only includes those that have been lab confirmed. In 2024, there were 285 cases of measles nationwide.
Of the 2025 measles cases, 21 were among international visitors. The other 1,523 cases were found in 42 jurisdictions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The CDC said 4% of cases involved those who’d had one dose of measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, and similarly, 4% were individuals who’d had both recommended doses. The other 92% were unvaccinated or their status wasn’t known. Nearly 40% of the cases were in the age 5 to 19 (school age) population, while 27% were in children younger than 5.
Twelve percent were hospitalized because of their measles symptom severity and three deaths have been attributed to measles this year.
Vaccination among Utah school kids
Federal officials are urging parents to have their children vaccinated against measles. “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity,” acting CDC director Jim O’Neill said. He is also deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, during the 2024-25 school year:
- About 10% of in-person kindergarten students in Utah had an exemption for the MMR vaccine or were missing documentation to show they were vaccinated against measles.
- 9.0% of in-person kindergarten students in Utah had an exemption to any school-required vaccine.
- 10.1% of all students in Utah had an exemption to any school-required vaccine, including students in online schools.
NBC News and Stanford looked at vaccine rates for communicable diseases like measles. NBC reported that in Washington County, Utah, near the Arizona border, about 79% of kindergartners are vaccinated against measles — just a bit higher than the rate in Gaines County, Texas, which was the heart of the 2025 outbreak earlier this year. To get herd immunity protection, 95% need to be vaccinated.
“I’ve worked for this health department for about 18 years, and we’ve never seen a case of measles that I know of up until this point,” David Heaton, the public information officer for the Southwest Utah Public Health Department, told NBC. “We are just at that low rate of (vaccine) uptake that does leave us open for this kind of an outbreak.”
Arizona and Utah health officials are reportedly working collaboratively to respond to the outbreak.
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