- Highland High School students faced measles exposure from Feb. 6 to Feb. 13.
- The Salt Lake County health department said measles is "actively spreading," encouraged not working, going to school with any symptoms.
- Utah's measles outbreak has reached 300 cases; 255 were unvaccinated people.
SALT LAKE CITY — Students at Highland High School could have been exposed to measles for more than a week as an infectious student continued to attend the school.
The Salt Lake County Health Department said the student attended school while infected with measles on Feb. 6 and the entire next week from Feb. 9 to Feb. 13.
The health department said measles is "actively spreading" in Salt Lake County in a statement on Wednesday and encouraged residents to avoid attending work, school, or extracurricular actives if they have any symptoms of measles.
"But please stay home if you have any signs of illness, especially now that we know measles is actively circulating in our community," Dorothy Adams, executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department, said.
It said the health system quickly notifies those who have been in contact with someone with measles, but they believe not all measles cases are being reported or formally diagnosed.
Notifications were sent about the potential exposure to parents of students at Highland High School who likely had contact with the infectious student and to all students without a vaccination record at the school.
The county health department said it advised unvaccinated students to monitor themselves closely for measles symptoms. It said there is a 90% chance of becoming infected for unvaccinated people who have either had contact with the infectious student, been in the same space as them, or entered a space the infectious student had been in within two hours.
People who were exposed should watch for symptoms for 21 days after exposure, and call their health care provider for instructions before going into an office to avoid exposing others there.
This new high school exposure comes just days after Tooele County reported its first case of measles — a Stansbury High School student who was exposed at a multidistrict school event in another county. That student attended school before symptoms began but was infectious on Feb. 9 and Feb. 10.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday reported that the state has now had 300 confirmed measles cases in this latest outbreak, with 58 of those cases reported in the last three weeks.
Symptoms of measles include a fever along with a cough, runny nose, red or watery eyes and a rash which often begins on the face at the hairline before spreading down the neck and to other areas.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services recommends that everyone be vaccinated against measles, typically requiring two doses of the MMR vaccine. For those who are vaccinated, 97% are well protected; however, about 3% of those exposed will still get sick, though they are less likely to have severe illness or spread measles to others than those who are not vaccinated.
The Salt Lake County Health Department said Wednesday that people who were born before 1957, had a previous confirmed measles infection or have had two doses of the MMR vaccine are considered immune.
Of the 300 cases in this ongoing outbreak, the health department said 255 were people not vaccinated, 23 had been vaccinated and the remainder had an unknown vaccination status. One in every 12 cases in Utah has led to hospitalization.
The Salt Lake County, Utah County and Southwest Utah health districts have reported detection of measles in the most recent wastewater samples on Feb. 10.
