The Northern Arizona measles outbreak is approaching 100 cases

Nearly 100 people have tested positive for measles amid Arizona’s largest outbreak in more than three decades, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. 

Since early August, one of the world’s most contagious diseases has been spreading in an isolated mountainous northern Arizona community with low vaccination rates. The area used to be the stronghold of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the church’s leader and prophet, Warren Jeffs. Today, mostly former members of the church live in the community that has changed significantly over the last two decades.  

Nearly three months after the first case was identified, 93 people have tested positive for measles in Mohave County, which includes Colorado City, where the majority of the cases are concentrated. Three people have been hospitalized, but no one has died. Arizona’s Navajo County also had four measles cases earlier this year, but the disease didn’t spread further than that.

Colorado City sits on the Arizona-Utah border, and measles is also raging on the other side. As of Wednesday, 45 cases have been identified on the Utah side by the Southwest Utah public health department, which covers several counties in the area. While these cases have moved into other towns in the state, such as St. George and Cedar City, all of the cases have been traced back to the outbreak in Short Creek, which is the collective name given to Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah. The two cities have about 5,000 residents combined.

At the beginning of October, New Times visited Short Creek to report on the outbreak.

In Short Creek, community clinics fighting the outbreak have seen patients of all ages — from children and teenagers to full-grown men — in the throes of the disease. Infected patients will experience a head cold, then a runny nose, white spots in the mouth and a red rash that covers the face before moving down the rest of the body. Some patients experience a fever as high as 106 degrees.

Measles weakens the immune system and allows secondary infections, such as pneumonia and encephalitis, to sneak in. This is especially dangerous — and can be deadly — for young, unvaccinated children. May Keate of the Short Creek clinic Hometown Wellness told Phoenix New Times earlier this month that “tons” of patients have contracted pneumonia amid this outbreak, forcing them to seek treatment at bigger facilities at least half an hour away.

At least until recently, families in Short Creek have resisted getting vaccinated. Many abstained from vaccination at the order of Jeffs, who had a brief but tumultuous reign over the area before being arrested in 2005. He is now serving time in a Texas prison. Other Short Creek residents, many of whom are ex-FLDS members, have a distrust of the government and authority in the wake of Jeffs’ rule and past government raids on the then-polygamist community.

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is 97% effective in preventing the spread of the disease, but achieving herd immunity requires a vaccination rate of 95%. At Short Creek’s schools, the vaccination rates are well below that threshold. Only 80% of students at Hildale’s high school have been vaccinated, and the school has had several measles cases. Only 40% of students at Colorado City’s high school are vaccinated. At the area’s charter school, only 7.7% of students have received the MMR vaccine.

Still, people in town have been heading out to get their shots. From August through Sept. 21, the Creek Valley Health Clinic administered 689 vaccines to Short Creek residents, clinic CEO Hunter Adams said. Mohave County has not returned a request for its updated vaccination numbers.