Arizona now facing biggest measles outbreak in two decades

More than 40 people have tested positive for measles in Colorado City since early August. The active outbreak in the northwest Arizona town is the worst measles outbreak the state has had in two decades.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the number of measles cases in Mohave County — most of which are concentrated in Colorado City — increased to 42 this week. The youngest infected person is 2 years old, and one positive person was hospitalized. No one has died.

The outbreak has moved fast over the last month and a half. In early August, Mohave County reported one positive measles case: an unvaccinated person with no significant travel history in the town of about 3,300 people. Week by week, the number of positive cases has ballooned, even doubling over the span of seven days.

The Department of Health Services posts publicly available data for positive measles cases going back only to 2005. But after the outbreak reached 24 positive cases in early September, the Colorado City outbreak was on the heels of being the largest outbreak on record. Previously, the largest outbreak occurred in 2016 at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Eloy. A total of 31 people, a mix of detainees and staff, tested positive for measles.

This week, Colorado City’s outbreak soared past that threshold. However, measles doesn’t recognize state borders, which means the outbreak is really even larger than the town’s 42 cases.

Colorado City is just across the border from the Utah town of Hildale, with the two towns often collectively known as Short Creek. According to Southwest Utah Public Health Department spokesperson David Heaton, 10 positive measles cases have been reported in the Hildale area over the last month, when the outbreak began. It’s currently affecting two schools, including Water Canyon High School, which is less than half a mile north of the Arizona-Utah border.

Additionally, two positive cases — one elementary school student and one high school student — have been identified within the Colorado City Unified School District, according to district superintendent Carol Timpson. Most of the people who have tested positive are children, said Danielle Lagana, a spokesperson for the Mohave County Public Health Department.

That brings the total positive measles cases in the Colorado City-Hildale area to 52.

Short Creek residents have a history of vaccine hesitancy due to the area’s connection to the offshoot Fundamentalist Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints. The towns used to be a stronghold for infamous ex-FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. In 2011, Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 years, for sexually assaulting young teens he’d taken as wives.

While measles is rare, it’s one of the most highly contagious diseases on the planet, and it can lead to serious complications. Measles lowers the immune system’s ability to fight infection, leaving infected people vulnerable to complications like pneumonia and encephalitis, which can kill. Babies and children, who may be too young to receive both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, are especially vulnerable.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considered measles eliminated in 2000 due to the MMR vaccine, which is 97% effective after two doses. The shot is generally provided to children between the ages of 12 months and 4 years. If the vaccine is administered within 72 hours of a person’s initial exposure to measles, the recipient gains protection against the disease or may experience milder illness, according to the CDC.

However, a Sept. 15 investigation by NBC News found that childhood vaccination rates are rapidly declining nationwide and that a wide swath of municipalities fall well below the 95% vaccination rate needed for herd immunity to measles.

This is certainly the case in Mohave County and Colorado City. According to ADHS data, only 78% of kindergarteners in the county are vaccinated against measles and this rate is even worse in Colorado City. One school has a 40% vaccination rate. In another, only 7.7% of students have gotten the MMR vaccine. Since the outbreak, vaccination rates are up in the area, with more than 550 doses administered.