Preparing for and Responding to Measles in Your School
This email is being sent to school administrators, School Wisconsin Immunization Registry (WIR) users, and key DHS staff.
Measles can spread quickly in a school setting and can cause serious illness. Students and staff that have not been vaccinated are at high risk for severe disease, especially students 5 years of age and younger, pregnant people, and people with weakened immune systems. The most important step you can take is to ensure students and staff, including volunteers, are vaccinated with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. The MMR vaccine is safe and very effective at preventing measles disease.
For prevention of measles, two doses of MMR vaccine are recommended routinely for children, with the first dose at age 12 through 15 months and the second dose at ages 4 through 6 years (school entry). In general, adults should have one dose of MMR. Two doses of MMR vaccine are recommended for adults at high risk for measles, including international travelers, students at post-high school education institutions, and healthcare personnel.
How to be prepared
- Ensure students are vaccinated with the MMR vaccine or have an exemption on file. The Wisconsin student immunization requirements can be waived for medical/health reasons, religious, or personal conviction.
- Encourage staff to check their own records to ensure they have received the MMR vaccine or have immunity to measles. If they are not immune to measles, encourage them to receive the MMR vaccine.
- Save immunization and exemption records for all students and make sure these records are current and easy to look up.
- The Wisconsin Immunization Registry (WIR) is a tool that can assist schools when gathering immunization records. For more information, please email dhswirhelp@dhs.wisconsiin.gov.
- Inform families of unvaccinated children and unvaccinated staff that they may need to stay home for up to 21 days each time they are near someone who has measles.
- Know the signs and symptoms of measles.
- Measles or suspecting someone of having measles should be reported immediately to your local health department.
Steps to take if there has been a person with measles at your school
- Contact your local health department if someone with measles may have been at your school.
- Follow all instructions given to you by the local public health staff. The state health department will be notified by the local health department.
- Review the attendance records for all students and staff that attended your school during the time the person with measles may have been at your school and track the:
- Student/staff first and last name
- Student’s parents’ first and last names
- Address
- Phone number
- Date of birth
- Classroom of the student/staff
- MMR vaccination date if available
- If a case of measles is confirmed, information gathered in the step above may need to be shared with the local health department.
- Depending on the situation, people who have not been vaccinated with any doses of MMR and have been near someone with measles (when they are infectious) may be asked to remain at home for up to three weeks.
Why local health departments need this information
- Measles spreads easily and rapidly, and can result in severe disease, it is a serious health threat and is an immediately reportable disease in Wisconsin.
- Local public health staff investigate all suspected cases of measles, including identifying any contacts of a measles case that are at risk of developing measles and determining necessary control measures.
- Schools and childcare settings are required to report under the communicable disease reporting rules found in Chapter DHS 144.07.
- The law requires reporting of both cases and suspected cases, and anyone who had contact with a person who had measles would be a suspect case and need to be followed by the local health department.
- It is important that public health gets information as soon as possible in order to notify families of the exposure, let families know what they should do if they were not vaccinated at the time of exposure, and let families know how they can contact their local public health department and seek care if they develop symptoms.
Additional resources
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