Utah has spent the past year fighting measles outbreaks — a grim milestone that could affect whether the United States can keep its measles-free designation.

More than 680 people have gotten sick since the state’s first outbreak began on June 20, 2025.

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.

READ MORE: How health sleuths are watching for threats like measles during the World Cup

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.

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.

The measles vaccine is safe and 97% protective after two doses.

READ MORE: South Carolina’s measles outbreak is over after sickening nearly 1,000 people

Though Utah’s spread has slowed in recent weeks, state epidemiologist Leisha Nolen sees little opportunity to rest. She’s worried 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.”

Utah sees the impacts of dropping vaccination rates

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. Overall, measles infections hit 22 of the state’s 29 counties.

READ MORE: Babies too young for MMR vaccine become ‘sitting ducks’ in measles outbreaks

In the state’s rural northeast, the conditions were also ripe for measles to spread. 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. Statewide, 12.8% were missing their vaccine, putting the state far short of the 95% vaccination rate needed to prevent measles outbreaks.

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.

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.

READ MORE: Dr. Mehmet Oz urges public to take the measles vaccine as U.S. cases rise

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.

Health experts will meet to decide on U.S. measles status

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.

READ MORE: A parent’s guide to preventing measles infection and what to look for

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 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 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 says 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.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – A man is in custody, charged with Murder in the shooting death of a teenage girl.

Washington County Deputies responded to calls of a shooting at a home on Hagan Circle, Friday night just before 10 p.m.

Once there, deputies located 15-year-old LuVenya Knight lying unresponsive inside the home. Life-saving measures were attempted but unsuccessful. Knight was pronounced dead at the scene.

22-year-old Kermarion Markel Washington of Tennille has been arrested and charged in the case.

Washington is charged with Felony Murder, Malice Murder, Child Molestation, Statutory Rape, Aggravated Assault, and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony.

Additional charges may be forthcoming.

Washington is currently being held at the Washington County Jail.

by Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile

Three years ago, Judy Rogers was nearly 80 years old and living alone in the Lander home she had occupied for decades. It wasn’t a huge house, but with two levels, it was a lot to maintain for the retired teacher, who had increasing trouble with balance and mobility related to diabetes and other health issues. Rogers hired a woman to do laundry and change linens twice a week. That helped. 

“But my sister was still falling a lot,” Walt Rogers said. About 20 times over the course of a year, in fact — including several falls that resulted in EMT responses. The once-great cook also wasn’t feeding herself properly, he said. “And when I visited her, I said, ‘Jude, you need more help.’”

Walt Rogers, who lives hundreds of miles away in Idaho, began researching options. His big sister adamantly did not want to go to a nursing home, he said. But Medicare doesn’t cover indefinite long-term care. Many private insurance plans don’t either. In-home caregiving services that are covered are often limited to medical tasks. 

That leaves private home healthcare, which is expensive. In 2025, the average monthly median cost for non-medical caregivers in Wyoming was $7,974 for 40 hours, according to CareScout’s Cost of Care Survey. Long-term care costs have been outpacing inflation in recent years, CareScout found. 

A 2023 AARP scorecard on long-term services ranked Wyoming 40th overall and gave the state particularly low scores in the areas of “affordability and access” and “choice of setting and provider.” 

Back in Idaho, Walt Rogers faced an all-too-common conundrum: how to obtain affordable, quality long-term care for the crucial but often overlooked needs of an elderly or chronically ill loved one.

So often people assume that home healthcare is an easy and available option, said Sarah Wilzbacher, who founded the Lander caregiving nonprofit Anam Cara. The truth, however, is more complicated and likely more expensive than people anticipate. 

The entire country is entering an elder care crisis, Wilzbacher said, one that is exacerbated in Wyoming by a quickly aging rural population, an ethos of self-reliance and a shortage of healthcare professionals and specialists.

“Wyoming being just a rural state, there’s very limited options for people to be able to stay at home and have quality care,” Wilzbacher said. 

Unpaid and unprepared

Research suggests that most Americans will need long-term care. This reality generally clashes with what people imagine their dotage will look like, according to Wilzbacher. She calls this phenomenon “magical thinking,” and said it’s a central driver of the elder care crisis.  

Misunderstandings of financing elder care also contribute. More than 20% of adults incorrectly believe that Medicare would pay the bill for their own or a loved one’s time in a nursing home if they had a long-term illness or disability, KFF found in 2022. And while it will generally cover temporary home healthcare, Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term care, which refers to help with daily tasks like bathing, cooking or managing medication.  

Medicaid does cover nursing home services and in-home caregiving — but only for people with very low income and assets. Wyoming is experiencing an uptick in need for these services — so much so that the Wyoming Health Department asked for legislative approval for two new positions in its Medicaid long-term care eligibility unit. 

“What we’ve seen in recent years is a pretty dramatic growth in the volume of applications we’re receiving, mostly from seniors and disabled seniors who are in need of nursing home or long-term care coverage,” Department Director Stefan Johansson told the Joint Appropriations Committee in December. Lawmakers granted the request. 

Another problem Wilzbacher observes is a lack of communication and advance planning, which she said results in people burying their heads in the sand and believing the system will take care of it. “And then a crisis happens,” she said. “A fall, dehydration, heart issues …”

And suddenly, an individual or family is forced to figure it out under duress. In that case, options are limited. A common outcome is that a family member becomes a caregiver. Nationwide, the care family members provide is equivalent to the amount of work done by about 17% of the nation’s full-time workers, a 2026 AARP report found.

Some 23% of adults in Wyoming are family caregivers, according to AARP data. That equates to about 106,000 people, said Sam Shumway, former AARP Wyoming state director, “which is a huge number.” 

Unpaid caregiving can strain budgets, pull people out of the workforce and cause significant emotional and financial distress, Shumway told WyoFile. Family caregivers handle everything from grocery shopping to complex medical tasks, often with little training. About 80% of caregivers pay out of their own pockets to meet loved ones’ needs, according to AARP. 

And because their efforts keep patients out of nursing homes, and Medicaid pays for the majority of nursing home stays, Shumway said, “these caregivers are providing a tremendous benefit — not only to the person that they’re caring for, but to the state of Wyoming. And it just goes unnoticed.”

Rachael Price, the co-executive director of development and strategy for Anam Cara in Lander, knows firsthand the impacts caregiving can have. When her own mother became severely ill and moved in with Price’s family, Price quit her former job to care for her full-time. “And that has this cascading effect,” as the family budget shrinks, social security contributions are reduced and stress mounts.

Of course, there is a third scenario, that of a person in need of care who doesn’t have family support. The social safety net of Medicaid will catch those folks. But eligibility requirements mean they have to essentially spend all their money before they can access its services.

And when a person doesn’t have enough family support, doesn’t qualify for Medicaid and can’t afford private care, the outcomes can be awful, Price and Wilzbacher said. They have seen this unfortunate scenario lead to poor hygiene, dehydration, malnutrition, squalor, erratic medication, chronic medical problems and regular ER visits.

“It’s heart-wrenching, the deficit that people live with,” Price said. 

The lucky 

When Walt Rogers was trying to figure out how to care for his sister, the siblings were fortunate that she had savings. He contacted a home-health company, but it did not offer the kind of non-medical assistance, like linen changing, that would ease her life at home, he said. The company referred them to Anam Cara, and they enlisted its help.  

An Anam Cara employee began visiting Judy Rogers to help with small tasks. Rogers, who had grown accustomed to living alone with her cat, was skeptical at first of a stranger entering her home. 

Walt Rogers was insistent, and before long, his sister enjoyed the visits. A caregiver helped make sure she was getting nutritious food, administered her insulin and other medication, shuttled her to physical therapy and kept tabs on her for regular reports to her brother. And when he persuaded his sister that her house was unmanageable, an Anam Cara caretaker helped her pack up her belongings. 

After selling the house, Rogers had a nest egg to pay for rent at an independent living apartment in a retirement facility, which offers perks like daily meals and home maintenance. When she moved in two years ago, Anam Cara caretakers came with her. These days, the 82-year-old keeps busy visiting with neighbors, playing bingo, attending coffee time and other activities. Caregivers come in three times daily to help her with meals and manage things like showers.  

“This has been a blessing right here,” Walt said in May, gesturing around Judy’s apartment. He was in town to visit his only sibling — they bantered good-naturedly, their strong Massachusetts accents seemingly amplified by each other’s company. 

Although Judy Rogers misses her home, she enjoys her new apartment and the social opportunities it brings. She’s especially lucky to have such a good brother, she said. “All my friends want to adopt him,” she said, laughing. 

A different approach

Wilzbacher, who has a background in nursing, psychotherapy and end-of-life care, started Anam Cara after moving to Lander from Colorado and identifying that elder care options were extremely limited. The name Anam Cara refers to an ancient Celtic concept that focuses on holistic and compassionate end-of-life care. 

What started as a one-woman service quickly grew. One patient, whom Anam Cara helped through his final days in his home, bequeathed his assets to the company. That spurred Anam Cara to morph into a non-profit. 

By raising money through grants and fundraising, Anam Cara subsidizes the cost of care, which allows it to charge much less than the $50-per-hour it costs to operate, Wilzbacher said. The aim is to help clients retain dignity and receive quality care in what is a crucial life chapter. 

“This community is very lucky to have an organization like Anam Cara to care for people like my sister,” Walt Rogers said. “To have this resource, it’s tremendous. They’ve made my sister’s life a lot better.”

Even with Anam Cara, gaps remain, Wilzbacher said. Medicare and Medicaid are subject to a barrage of restrictions or threats of cuts that are hard to keep up with. Wyoming’s rural health system is short on specialists like neurologists and dermatologists, and the same can be said for palliative care and memory care facilities. 

“We don’t have the specialties that help people age with dignity and intention, and to craft their advance directives,” Wilzbacher said. Help with this legal document, which specifies preferences for medical care should someone lose the ability to communicate or make decisions, is “another piece that’s missing in rural communities.”

DISCLOSURE: The author’s family members became clients of Anam Cara during the course of reporting this story. -Ed.

This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

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