Jackson County has confirmed its first measles cases of the year, health officials say, making it the ninth Wisconsin county to report cases this year. The two cases are tied to out-of-state travel, and public health workers are now trying to track down anyone who might have been exposed.
Jackson County Public Health confirmed the county's first cases of measles, according to wxow.com, which reported that the infections are related to out-of-state travel. The cases were confirmed through testing at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, the outlet reported, and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is now working with the county health department to identify and notify people who may have been exposed. WLUK reported the Wisconsin Department of Health Services confirmed the two Jackson County cases, which mark the ninth county in the state to see measles this year.
Conflicting Statewide Counts
Exactly how many measles cases Wisconsin has logged this year depends on which count you look at. The same report from wxow.com cited a Wisconsin Department of Health Services update putting the statewide total at 310 cases as of October 23, with 308 of those involving unvaccinated people and six hospitalizations. WLUK, however, reported a higher figure in its own account of the Jackson County cases, citing 335 measles cases statewide this year, with unvaccinated people accounting for 333 of them and seven hospitalizations total. The discrepancy between the two tallies was not resolved in either report.
A third snapshot, from earlier in the month, shows just how quickly the numbers have been moving. As of October 20, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services had confirmed 289 measles cases statewide, according to doorcountypulse.com. That outlet also reported that as of October 15, Wisconsin ranked fourth in the nation for confirmed measles cases, trailing only Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Utah, as the United States overall had recorded 4,410 confirmed cases, with 10% requiring hospitalization and three deaths nationwide.
Spreading Beyond the Southwest Outbreak
Jackson County joins a growing list of counties that have reported measles since August, including Chippewa, Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, Marathon, Richland, Rock and Vernon counties, per doorcountypulse.com's reporting. Much of Wisconsin's earlier case count was concentrated in a single outbreak in the southwestern part of the state; wpr.org reported that the vast majority of the 267 cases Wisconsin had reported at one point this year were linked to that ongoing southwestern outbreak.
But the virus has since turned up well outside that cluster. Chippewa County has 11 confirmed cases after an initial infection tied to out-of-state travel, and Marathon County has six confirmed cases from a similarly travel-linked case, according to wpr.org. A Wisconsin Department of Health Services release from September said the Marathon County case was exposed during out-of-state travel and was not related to the outbreak in southwest Wisconsin. Health experts told wpr.org that the pattern of cases cropping up in multiple, unconnected counties means measles is starting to act more like an endemic disease circulating in the state rather than a single contained outbreak.
Officials Warn Winter Could Make It Worse
That shift has public health experts bracing for a tougher season ahead. As respiratory viruses circulate more heavily in the colder months, conditions could become, in the words of one expert cited by wpr.org, certainly ripe for bigger outbreaks than what the state is currently seeing. Wisconsin's Department of Health Services has also instructed health care providers to send PCR and serologic testing for suspected measles cases to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene for fee-exempt testing, stressing that providers should isolate, test and report suspected cases quickly because timely reporting is critical to reducing spread.
Jackson County Public Health is urging residents that the best way to prevent the virus from spreading further is to get the MMR vaccine, according to wxow.com's report. Anyone experiencing measles symptoms is advised to contact a healthcare provider before showing up in person, since the virus spreads easily through the air and can cause serious complications including pneumonia, brain damage, deafness and, in rare cases, death.
