Wisconsin has first measles outbreak of 2026; 15 cases confirmed in SW part of the state
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Wisconsin is experiencing its first outbreak of measles cases of the year, as part of a resurgence of the preventable disease across the country.
Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services confirmed 15 cases as of Thursday, and said there are another six probable cases that have not yet been confirmed through testing. All but one of the measles cases are in Iowa County in the southwestern part of the state, and the other case is in neighboring Lafayette County.
Dr. Peter Bornstein, director of infection prevention for Fairview Health Services’ system, said that Minnesotans don’t need to fear traveling to Wisconsin, but he stressed the importance of vaccination against the serious, highly contagious, and possibly deadly disease.
“The best thing for people to do is to be up to date on their measles vaccination,” Bornstein said. “And it's the first line of protection for newborns. They can't get the vaccine, so the only way to protect newborns from getting measles, which can be fatal, is for the older children and adults around them to be vaccinated.”
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 96 percent of the cases this year occurred in people who were unvaccinated or had only had one of the vaccine’s two doses, and nearly 20 percent of the cases were in children under the age of five years old.
To ensure people are protected through community immunity, also known as herd immunity, more than 95 percent of people have to be vaccinated. According to CDC data, only 87 percent of Minnesota kindergartners were vaccinated in the 2024-2025 school year.
“The vaccine reluctance is unfortunately due to a lot of disinformation about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines,” Dr. Bornstein said. “The MMR vaccine has been around for decades. It's probably the most heavily studied vaccine. There have not been any robust studies that indicate it's especially dangerous. I can't emphasize enough how safe and effective the MMR vaccine is, and how important it is for people to get it.”
Measles cases seem to be spiking across the country in recent years, as the anti-vaccine movement has grown. The CDC has reported 2,566 cases so far this year, already surpassing last year’s total count of 2,289. It’s the highest number of reported cases of measles in the U.S. since 1991.
“Unfortunately, measles is one of the most contagious viruses around,” Bornstein said. “ It's way more contagious than COVID, for example, or influenza. If someone has measles and they're coughing. It can linger in the air for hours, even after the person's left.”
The symptoms of measles can include a high fever, cough, runny nose, red and watery eyes, and a rash three to five days after other symptoms begin. The illness can be especially dangerous for babies and young children. Serious cases can lead to pneumonia, meningitis, brain swelling and even death.
“While the majority of people who do get measles will recover, some of them may not recover,” Bornstein said. “They may be permanently disabled or die from the measles.”
