Patients surprised measles isn’t mild
Several patients said they wish they’d known how serious measles could be before they caught it.
Utah’s measles outbreak is growing, and 90% of the patients are unvaccinated. They are also surprised that measles isn’t an infection you quickly recover from.
Nolen said she recently visited one of the communities in Utah, seeing high numbers of measles, to talk with people who have been infected about their experience with the virus. Though she didn’t specify which area, Nolen said the people she spoke with told her that contracting measles was much worse than they expected.
“It is not a mild infection, it is not a mild virus; it is a severe illness. And they kept on telling me they wish they’d known beforehand how bad measles was, so that they could have protected their family,” she said.
Several patients said they wish they’d known how serious measles could be before they caught it.
Health officials say there has long been a simple way to avoid learning that lesson firsthand: vaccination.