On Saturday, University Health Services (UHS) and Public Health Madison Dane County (PHMDC) marked the end of the 21-day post-exposure monitoring period after the measles case on campus. During the three weeks of monitoring and response, we are grateful to have seen no additional measles cases on campus. As of February 21, there is no longer a risk to the campus community related to the measles case on campus.
Throughout the month of February, UHS and PHMDC worked to notify members of the campus and broader Madison community, assisted with quarantine logistics for at-risk students, and arranged MMR vaccination clinics that served over 200 students and staff, with one additional late-night clinic offered next week. UHS is grateful for the collaboration with PHMDC and campus partners in support of this response as we worked to protect the health of our campus community.
While post-exposure monitoring has concluded and campus emergency response has wound down, UHS remains prepared to respond in the instance of future measles cases. To support future communicable disease prevention and response efforts, UW–Madison recently announced a new policy that requires students to share their vaccination status to prevent the potential spread of several common communicable diseases, including measles. Access to immunization data for our student population gives UHS and public health officials a better understanding of our students’ immunity. This helps ensure faster, specific support for individual students who are at a higher risk and will support an effective public health response if faced with a communicable disease outbreak on campus.
“While we are grateful that a single measles case on campus did not result in greater spread to our community, UHS remains vigilant in our communicable disease prevention and response efforts,” said Jake Baggott, Executive Director of UHS and Chief Health Officer of UW–Madison. “With increasing reports of highly infectious diseases in the United States and on college campuses, we will continue to proactively work to decrease the risk of communicable disease outbreaks on our campus while being prepared to respond if needed in the future.”