SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — The Summit County Health Department confirmed Saturday that the first measles case came from an unvaccinated student attending South Summit Elementary.
Exposures may have occurred during school hours on January 5.
“When we hear about a case that involves a child and they're not feeling well, it's always concerning. It's also concerning when that individual felt fine and went to school and unknowingly may have exposed a number of their classmates, friends, staff members as well during that time,” said Phil Bondurant from the health department.
The three school districts in Summit County, however, have been meeting with the health department since the summer.
“We wanted to start communicating early and overcommunicating so that people had an opportunity to either find their vaccination records or to potentially go get vaccinated,” said superintendent Greg Maughan.
After finding out about the first case, the district felt prepared and started non-stop communication with families both vaccinated and unvaccinated.
“My head nurse has been calling one by one, the parents of every one of those students to make sure that they know so they can start planning now, rather than having them potentially miss an email and then bring their student to school Monday,” Maughan said.
Heading into Monday, health officials are asking parents to be on the lookout for flu-like symptoms first.
“After two to three days of those generalized symptoms showing up, you begin to see spotting. At three to five days, you will see that rash that's consistent with measles, and that's really what we want parents to look for,” Bondurant said.
This is important considering unvaccinated students exposed will have to miss school for 21 days.
“That I understand, is difficult for families. It's a social disruption and might be the most difficult part of measles,” Bondurant said.
“While I want every student in every class every day, the last thing we want is for a student to be put in a position of going home when they really, based on their symptoms, probably shouldn't have been at school that day,” Maughan added.
Health officials ask that if you feel you have the measles, do not go into a doctor's office without calling ahead of time, to try to limit the exposure to other people.
