Doctors, health officials urge measles vaccine as cases linger and school is starting

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Utah health experts and pediatricians are urging measles vaccinations as school is beginning and cases are continuing to be diagnosed each week in Utah.Dr. T.W. Jones, a pediatric disease specialist, said he has interacted with children who have been hospitalized with measles and their families, seeing a disease that had been eradicated when he was a child cause significant illness now."It is not the common cold; it is not just a mild case of sniffles. Even the best case of measles is rough, families miss work, kids miss school, it costs them hundreds of dollars sometimes. \u2026 and when it goes badly, it goes really badly," he said.He spoke at a press conference on Tuesday hosted by the Utah Academy of Family Physicians along with other doctors and health officials. Like firefighters who know smoldering cinders can lead to a fire reigniting, doctors know just one or two measles cases can cause many more if the conditions are right, he said. "It makes me worry, personally, as a pediatric disease specialist," he said.VaccinationsToday, Jones said, more children are immunocompromised than when the measles vaccine was first introduced, like organ recipients or kids receiving new medications for diseases that may not have had a treatment then. He said those children are "profoundly vulnerable" to measles, and it could be life-threatening.Utah Department of Health and Human Services statistics show only a few cases over the last few weeks, but data from wastewater sampling shows there could be more undiagnosed cases.State epidemiologist Leisha Nolen said the health department is "very worried" about what will happen with measles when school starts and the weather gets colder. She said now is the time to get children protected.Of the over 700 Utahns who have gotten sick from measles during this outbreak, one-third have been in the emergency room and 8% have been admitted to the hospital, Nolen said. She encouraged parents to protect their families."This is the time to remember to get those vaccines for your child and make sure they do not have a risk of measles," she said. "This is not something we want families to gamble with; we want to make sure their kids are as protected as possible."Dr. Jordan Roberts, a family physician, said he encourages his patients to ask him about vaccines instead of looking for information on the internet. He said he and his colleagues have done the research an