On February 2, the Public Health of Madison and Dane County verified a case of Measles in Dane County. This highly infectious viral disease is characterized by high fever, a runny nose, red eyes and a red rash. The measles vaccine has been widely available since the mid-1960s and has an approximately 97% effectiveness against the disease across a lifespan. The news of measles comes as vaccination rates across the country decrease amid federal changes to the childhood vaccination schedule.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison notified the public of a reported measles case on campus via Instagram on Feb. 2, including in the post a list of symptoms to watch for and a link to University Health Services.
“I think a lot of students didn’t really understand how dangerous this was and how serious measles actually is, but then as the university continued warning us, we understood that this is actually an issue on campus,” said Nora Knoploh, a freshman at UW-Madison.
Living in an on-campus residence hall, Knoploh quickly learned of the measles outbreak through social media and student word of mouth.
“I have seen a few more kids wearing masks to class and whether that’s because they are sick and they don’t want to get anyone else sick or they’re worried of getting measles, I’m not sure…I haven’t really made any changes. When I first heard about the measles case, I looked into [if] all my vaccines were up to date, and if I needed to get a boost or anything, and then I pretty much just went about my day once I knew that I was vaccinated,” Knoploh said.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is not the only school reassuring students and families about safety precautions in place and the resources available to eliminate the spread of measles. The Stoughton Area School District sent out a districtwide notice at the beginning of February with information on possible exposure sites from the outbreak, common symptoms and the school attendance policy for affected individuals.
Lesly Anderson is the SASD District Nurse and oversees student and family communication regarding district health concerns, ensuring compliance with state guidelines.
“[The school district] gets notified by public health if there’s anything we should know about. Proactively, [following the Dane County case], we decided to send out a communication telling everyone to check if they’re vaccinated and then all the places that this [infected] person had been, so they could check for themselves if they could have been exposed. And then if they weren’t vaccinated, to get vaccinated,” Anderson said.
SASD will continue to promote the vaccination recommendations of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which follows the guidelines published by the American Academy of Pediatrics on the childhood vaccination schedule.
“There are no changes at this time. We just ask people to monitor their symptoms and if they get any symptoms, stay home and then they would follow up with us to let us know. The nice thing about the school district is that if there were a positive case, with one of our students or our staff, we would get notified directly from public health,” Anderson said.
UW-Madison is taking more retroactive action to prevent further spread of measles on campus. On Feb. 12, the university announced in an email to students and families a new vaccination disclosure policy requiring all students to share their vaccination status via the My UW page. Those who do not share their status are subject to a registration hold until satisfaction of the disclosure requirement.
“I think [the university] is doing a good job. They took the case very seriously and they made sure that the affected student was quarantined and that no one else was getting sick. They were offering free measles vaccines in case any students still needed to get vaccinated, so that was good. I think they did a good job at tracking down where that student was and who potentially could have been exposed,” Knoploh said.
The best way to keep yourself and the people around you safe is through vaccination, according to Anderson. Despite the rise in local cases, vaccine effectiveness has not decreased, and monitoring possible symptoms and staying home when sick are effective in preventing further spread.
“The number one thing is to vaccinate. Stay home if you’re sick. I think that’s the hardest one because people feel bad if they miss work or if they can’t go to school because they’re sick, but it’s really important, especially in those beginning days. And then just staying up to date with stuff, make sure you’re watching a reputable news source… anybody can go to the Wisconsin disease dashboard (Public Health Madison & Dane County) and see what’s going on where,” Anderson said.
