>> James Barnier, thanks very much for joining us.
>> Thank you. >> Measles was declared
eliminated in the U.S. 25 years ago, but this year
marks the most cases since then, with spread of the
disease to 40 states and more than 1300 cases.
Earlier this month, Wisconsin reported nine
cases in Oconto County. But health officials say they
believe any spread there is contained. Still, Wisconsin
kindergartners have one of the nation's lowest
vaccination rates against measles, with less than 85%
of them up to date on the measles vaccine. Last year.
That's compared to about 92.5% of kindergartners
nationwide, according to the CDC. We turn to Doctor James
Conway, pediatric infectious disease specialist at the UW
School of Medicine and Public Health. And thanks
for being here. >> Happy to be back.
>> So with Wisconsin vaccination rates, how at
risk are we for measles outbreaks?
a sitting duck. You know, as we see people traveling and
introducing the disease into various areas, all it takes
is one person who's incubating the disease to
show up in an area with under-immunized populations.
In a way, it goes. That's really how these things get
started. >> Are you surprised that we
haven't seen that kind of outbreak?
surprising given our low rates and how much travel
people have been doing as we've come out of Covid and
gotten back to more normal activity. You know, we know
that disease gets introduced fairly regularly. You know,
while many of them are related to the Texas
outbreak, we still see cases countries. And so all it
takes is one person showing up in the right place at the
right time. >> Now, I understand that
Wisconsin is one of only 13 states that has a personal
conviction waiver for parents to opt out of the
vaccine. Is that opt out on the rise?
>> Yeah, it's been debated. You know, there are medical
waivers in every state, and some states also have
religious waivers. But this personal exemption waiver is
something that's a little unusual. And it really
allows people that just have a deep held personal
conviction to opt out of it. Some states are discussing
actually allowing more of that while other states are
shutting it down and actually trying to contain
that activity. >> So what's it like for a
doctor like yourself to see a preventable disease like
this spreading? >> Yeah. It's heartbreaking.
I mean, I saw plenty of measles earlier in my
career, both in my training here in the United States
and in my work globally. And, you know, as we worked
so hard to eradicate polio when I was younger, measles
was really the next one on the chopping block. And in
the 90s, we were very optimistic. We were getting
closer. You know, I've seen so many children suffer with
this disease. Adults don't do well with it either. And
then having to see people unfortunately subjected to
this again, you know, it's really both preventable. And
just so unfortunate. >> How transmissible are
measles? >> Measles is probably one
of the most transmissible things on the planet. You
know, we talk about the fact that you probably need about
95% of people to be vaccinated in any community
to keep an outbreak from spreading. And so when we're
sitting well below 90%, you know, it's really almost
something that is inevitable. But it is by far
one of the most contagious things on this planet at
this point. kind of the symptoms of, of
measles, but it can be fatal.
1 to 2 people per thousand are going to be killed by
this. Probably 10% get hospitalized. So it is, you
know, really a very high risk disease, especially in
young kids, the elderly, people with compromised
immune systems. But even people that survive it. I
mean, it's a miserable disease.
>> And there are certain groups that cannot get a
vaccine. And any spread would put those people at
risk who who really does not get the vaccine.
>> Yeah. So this is one of the few vaccines that's
still considered a live viral vaccine. So these are
viruses that have been essentially engineered to be
less transmissible, but they still can cause some
symptoms in people that don't have a good immune
system. So people that have had bone marrow or other
organ transplants shouldn't be getting these vaccines.
Patients that are under chemotherapy for other types
of cancers, people that are on immune compromising
drugs, they just can't get the vaccines. And so they
really do depend on the rest of us to essentially build a
firewall for them. >> Now, I learned that in
Milwaukee, the vaccination 75%. They are now giving out
800 doses of this vaccine. But how at risk is a place
like Milwaukee? >> Yeah, so that's exactly
the worst nightmare. Because, you know, one of
the things we need to remember about measles is
people are contagious before they have symptoms. So 3 or
4 days before you're actually ill with obvious
shedding that virus. And so when you've got even 75 or
80% of people immunized, that means 1 in 5 people are
vulnerable. Those get transmitted. It's got a long
incubation period. So people can be walking around for
weeks, not remember where they got it. And so from a
public health standpoint, chasing down where it
started and getting people into quarantine and
isolation is really a nightmare.