Wisconsin's measles outbreak has grown past 400 cases, and in a Nov. 3 memo the state health department acknowledged that transmission is happening primarily in Amish and Mennonite communities.
In Cashton, nurse Lisa Larson runs a mobile health clinic out of a repurposed Winnebago motorhome, parking at an Amish produce market to see patients. Since September she has also driven the clinic to Amish communities in Hillsboro and Wilton, in Monroe and Vernon counties.
Larson and a fellow nurse have handled, or referred to county health departments, more than 100 requests for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine from Amish residents since the outbreak took hold this summer. Workers say that response rests on trust built through years, and in one doctor's case nearly 50 years, of house calls.
Health workers trace the southwest Wisconsin outbreak in part to a large group trip to Pennsylvania over the summer; Pennsylvania has recorded more than 1,400 measles cases this year. State data show the first Wisconsin patients in this outbreak began showing symptoms in early July.
The work is complicated by low vaccination rates nearby: state data show only about half of Vernon County 6-year-olds had received the measles shot in the most recent school year, compared with about 75% statewide. Larson uses visits to explain that while measles is often a fever and rash, it can also cause pneumonia, brain swelling, immune system damage and death.
