(The Center Square) – Nine cases of measles were found in Oconto County, leading the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to encourage the public to get two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, which it says is 97% effective in preventing the disease.
One person tested positive and eight others were declared to have the disease through symptoms and a common out-of-state source through travel. DHS said that the risk of public exposure remains low.
“Measles is a highly contagious disease that can be spread from person to person through the air and can stay in the air for two hours after a sick person coughs or sneezes,” DHS said. “It is so contagious that if one person gets it, up to 90% of the people around them may also become infected if they are not vaccinated.”
DHS said that symptoms will show up between 10 and 21 days after a person is exposed to measles and include runny nose, high fever, fatigue, cough, red eyes and conjunctivitis and a red rash with bumps that starts at the hairline.
“Measles can cause serious health complications, including pneumonia, brain damage, and deafness, and can sometimes be deadly,” DHS said. “One in four people who get measles in the United States will be hospitalized.”
The report came as DHS also reported that 86.4% of students in the state met the minimum immunization requirements, a decrease from the previous school year.
The decrease is mainly due to a new meningitis vaccination requirement for students in grades 7 to 12. Without the new requirement factored in, 89.3% of students met the minimum requirements.
“Our school vaccination data tells us there are children in our schools who are not protected from an outbreak of preventable diseases like measles,” said State Health Officer Paula Tran. “In public health, we know that 95% of people in a community need to be vaccinated against measles in order to prevent an outbreak, which is why it’s so important to get children the vaccines they need on time.”
