How Oconto County contained its measles outbreak 

Public health strategies, like contact tracing, isolation and public education, contained this year’s measles outbreak in Oconto County.

In August, public health officials announced nine confirmed cases of the highly contagious disease in the county, the first cases in the state this year. Jaelyn Scanlan, the health officer and public health manager for Oconto County Health and Human Services, said her initial reaction was surprise.

“It’s small, little Oconto County,” she said in an interview. “You hear about the big outbreak in Texas, and then when you really find out that it’s here, it was just kind of initial shock.”

Her staff acted quickly, drawing on their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You just spring right back to that and boots on the ground and tackle it the same way,” she said.

The outbreak grew to 36 cases, all among unvaccinated people, and led to two hospitalizations, according to state data. The majority of cases were in kids.

The last confirmed case had a rash onset the week of Sept. 7. An outbreak is over after 42 days — or two disease incubation periods — with no cases.

“We were all counting down those days,” Scanlan said.

The county’s public health staff were able to contain the outbreak, while still carrying on their day-to-day work.

“I’m very happy with the way the team pulled together, and very thankful for everybody willing to help us out,” she said.

Scanlan, along with public health nurses Amy Longsine and Carolyn Klosterman, recently spoke to Wisconsin Health News. Edited excerpts are below.

WHN: What is the vaccination rate in the county? How concerning was this in terms of community spread?

Longsine: We have data for children up to 2 years of age. And in 2024, we were at almost 82 percent. Those are the kids who received one dose of MMR. MMR is not a routine vaccination for adults, so that data is not easily obtained … With that level of vaccination, I would say it definitely puts folks at risk for more spread. Ninety-five percent is kind of the going rate for herd immunity with measles.

WHN: What steps did you take?

Klosterman: The first thing that we had to do was contact trace any individuals, and then also go over isolation and quarantine guidelines with those people. We also provided a lot of education to the public businesses and our local partners as well.

WHN: What’s your assessment of your response?

Longsine: The general cooperation of the individuals that we worked with went really well. Jaelyn was overseeing everything, but Carolyn and I divided tasks. It really helped that Carolyn was the main contact for individuals, as far as the contact tracing went. I primarily worked with our partners, businesses and other healthcare entities in our county in making sure they had the proper information they needed. If someone presented to one of our local emergency departments, we made sure they had that guidance and were aware of what to do when that individual would present.

We also utilized our resources within the Department of Health Services and their immunization program, as well as our regional infection prevention nurse through DHS. They were really helpful to us, beneficial in words I can’t even explain. We were in contact with the surrounding area and other local and tribal health departments to make sure everybody was aware of what was going on and to make sure everybody was on the same page. That really worked well for us.

WHN: What lessons do you have for other public health departments?

Scanlan: Know who and what your resources are and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t reinvent the wheel. If the state has a nice media package or toolkit, don’t spend hours creating your own when they’re there to help you communicate with your surrounding counties and different agencies. Don’t be afraid to partner with them.

We had internal communication plans laid out prior, knowing our timeline and what’s going to have to go out to the public and when. Appropriately divide duties within your own team. Don’t lump something on one person. That really helped us out.

And we just stayed positive. We worked together really well as a team. We knew there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. We helped each other through it as best we could.