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>> Wisconsin is
experiencing one of the

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largest measles outbreaks
in several years. At last

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count, the Department of
Health Services has

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identified 48 cases and one
hospitalization, mostly in

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the southwest part of the
state, and the case count

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has grown rapidly due to
how highly contagious

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measles is among the
unvaccinated. With the

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latest, we're joined by
Doctor Ryan Westergaard,

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chief medical officer with
the Wisconsin DHS Bureau of

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Communicable Disease. And
doctor, thanks very much

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for being here.
>> Thank you for having me.

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>> Describe how fast this
has spread in this latest

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outbreak.
>> Well, unlike some

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previous outbreaks, we
didn't catch this one at

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the very beginning. We we
identified cases that may

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have been associated with
some families that had

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symptoms for a few weeks.
So it might even have been

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going on for a month. When
we did first detect it a

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couple of weeks ago, it's
doubled about every 4 or 5

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days. So we started with
just two cases confirmed.

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Now we're up to 48. So that
number goes up when our

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investigators and local
in the community, following

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up on people who report
symptoms, identifying

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contacts, and when they
find people with note with

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new symptoms, or they hear
about a new test, that

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number goes up. So this is
often what we see with

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measles outbreaks.
>> How do public health

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officials get a handle on
it?

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>> Yeah, it's it's pretty
painstaking. And we give

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them so much, so much
credit for their dedication

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out in the communities. So
measles is one of the

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reportable conditions. So
every positive lab test and

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every diagnosis made in a
clinic we hear about in

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public health and here in
Wisconsin, it's our local

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health departments, usually
at the county or sometimes

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the city level that are the
front line. So where I work

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at the state health
department, we we support,

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we aggregate the data, but
the work that gets done in

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the community is involves
every single person who is

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identified with measles
gets an interview where an

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investigator, sometimes a
public health nurse or a

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full time disease
investigator will meet with

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them in person, face to
face with. With. Personal

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protective equipment when.
When needed, and they'll

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confidentially try to
understand places and

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people where they've been
in contact. And then we can

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then spread out and
identify other people who

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have been exposed, give
them the advice that they

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need about to double check
their vaccination status or

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to get a post-exposure
prophylaxis, meaning a

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vaccine. And, and so that's,
that's the work that's

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being done right now. And
we're probably going to see

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more cases as a result of
those investigations.

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>> With childhood
vaccination rates,

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including for measles
sitting at about 85% for

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incoming kindergartners in
Wisconsin. Was it just a

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matter of time before this
outbreak happened?

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>> I think the answer is
yes to that. We've we've

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been concerned about the
level of childhood

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vaccinations being too low.
Measles, as you said, is

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probably our most
contagious virus. And the

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classical teaching in
public health school is

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that you really need to
have a community with 95%

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vaccine coverage or greater
to prevent an outbreak. If

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there is a case that comes
into the community through

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travel, for example. So we
have many communities that

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are below 90 and below 85%.
And so for the past year

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and a half, where there
have been measles outbreaks

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occurring in different
places of the country,

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we've kind of been
anticipating when is it

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going to come to Wisconsin.
The benefit of that is that

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we were ready and we're
we're making the right

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resources available to our
southwestern counties, and

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hopefully we'll take this
what is now a medium sized

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outbreak and keep it that
small and prevent it from

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getting to be a large one
like we've seen in some

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other states.
get measles?

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>> Measles is can be a
pretty serious infection.

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And it's a it's a good
question to ask and to talk

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about, because there's been
so little measles around in

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this country for so long
that many physicians that

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are my generation or
younger have never seen a

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case. So measles can is a
respiratory virus. So it

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spreads through the air,
which is what makes it so

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contagious. The other side
of the room, particles can

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remain suspended in the air
and cause an infection. But

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when it gets into the body,
through the nose or mouth

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mouth, it causes a whole
body. A systemic infection

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causes high fever,
sometimes as high as 105, a

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whole body rash that is,
the characteristic dense

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red measles rash that
starts on the head and then

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spreads to the whole body.
And so most anyone that

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gets measles will have
those symptoms and feel

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pretty terrible. But a
subset of people with

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measles can get really
severe illness, and it can

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cause pneumonia and cause
encephalitis or swelling of

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the brain. And sometimes,
particularly in children,

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that brain inflammation can
cause permanent

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disabilities like blindness
or deafness. So so it's a

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serious it's a serious
infection, one that we want

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to prevent. And our goal is
to is to eliminate measles.

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So there's actually not
spreading in our

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communities at all. And
that's why the stakes are

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kind of high.
there was a measles vaccine?

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>> Yeah. The measles
vaccine or version of the

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measles vaccine was
released in 1963. So a good

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long time ago and the
decades before that,

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essentially everyone got
measles during childhood.

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Right. And so that's why
there's some misconception

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that this is a sort of a
normal part of childhood.

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But what we don't remember
is that when 3 to 4 million

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children in the US get
measles in a year like they

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did in the 50s and 60s,
that means that several

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hundred children, young
babies, will will die from

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the serious complications.
So in that decade before we

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had MMR vaccine, there were
3 to 400 deaths in children

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per year.
>> Doctor Ryan Westergaard,

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thanks very much for your
update.

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>> Yeah, thanks for being
for having me.

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>> Turning to this week's
Inside Wisconsin politics.