Wisconsin health officials advise early measles vaccination for some infants amid outbreak

As the measles case count hits a 35-year high in Wisconsin, state health officials are encouraging parents of infants at risk of exposure to consider getting them vaccinated early. Infants are especially vulnerable to the disease. Last week, health officials reported the death of an infant in Grant County related to the ongoing measles outbreak in southwestern Wisconsin. It’s the first measles-associated death in the state since 1990 . The Wisconsin Department of Health Services issued guidance Nov. 3 recommending that infants aged 6 to 11 months receive the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine “if they are members of a family or community that is likely to be exposed to measles.” Understanding Wisconsin, Together. WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter. X/Twitter This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Email Subscribe The first dose of the MMR vaccine is typically recommended for children between 12 and 15 months, though it can be safely administered to children as young as 6 months , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Early vaccination is not recommended for all infants in Wisconsin, and parents should talk to their child’s pediatrician about whether early vaccination is right for them. “We don’t do that for everybody because we’ve learned through lots of research that the vaccine doesn’t work as well when we give it before the first birthday,” Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases at DHS, told WPR’s “ Wisconsin Today .” “But compared to no protection at all, it makes a lot of sense to give it at a younger age,” he said. So far this year, there have been 477 confirmed measles cases across 15 Wisconsin counties. Most are clustered in Grant and Lafayette counties, in the southwest corner of the state. It’s the highest number of cases Wisconsin has seen in more than three decades , according to the state health department. The outbreak is spreading because of low vaccination rates, Westergaard said. Wisconsin has the third-lowest measles vaccination rate in the country. “This is what measles does when it gets into a population where vaccination rates are low. It’s one of the most contagious infections we know of — it spreads very efficiently among people who aren’t immune,” Westergaard said. “Right now, our focus is on getting people protected through vaccination and interrupting those chains of transmission.” “If we can get the MMR dose to children before they get into kindergarten, we can live in a world where measles essentially doesn’t exist,” he continued. “We had a couple of decades of that success, and we’re slipping. And now we’re seeing the cost of having those vaccination rates go down.” The outbreak in southwestern Wisconsin has raised local awareness around the measles vaccine, said Kessa Klaas, the health officer for Grant County. Her office is sending nurses into the community to administer MMR vaccines. “We have been getting calls, if not daily, I would say every other day,” Klaas said. “We have a nurse out same-day to provide that vaccine in the home or wherever that person feels most comfortable.” Klaas said she is meeting a lot of young parents who are unfamiliar with the importance of the measles vaccine because the disease was declared “ eliminated ” from the United States in 2000 and therefore not a big part of people’s lives. “We’ve never seen measles, so it’s something new,” Klaas said. “I don’t necessarily think that they’re vaccine-hesitant, or that people are not getting it because of that reason. I feel like it’s more we just haven’t seen it.” Last week, the Marathon County Health Department announced a possible public measles exposure at the Marshfield Medical Center’s Weston emergency department. To date, however, most of the measles cases in Wisconsin have been concentrated in families and close-knit social networks such as Amish and Mennonite communities, according to the DHS . If you believe you or someone in your family has measles, Westergaard said to check your vaccination records and then reach out to your health provider by phone. “This is a unique case where we don’t want to just show up at the clinic or show up at the emergency department, but call first,” he said. Westergaard believes that Wisconsin’s current outbreak can be contained and that measles can again be virtually eradicated. “I’m very confident we can get back to where we were before by getting out and strengthening all those systems of care,” he said. 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