La Crosse health officials point to vaccinations amid local measles threat

Jordan Fremstad by Jordan Fremstad

La Crosse County Health officials are warning about potential measles exposure in our community.

It was confirmed a visitor with measles traveled to businesses in La Crosse and Trempealeau County.

A traveler from Missouri with a case of the measles passed through the area recently.

“I got a phone call on Saturday morning, indicating that this individual had been confirmed with the measles and was in the La Crosse County and Trempealeau County areas while infectious,” said Director of La Crosse County Public Health, Jen Rombalski.

The disease is not common anymore, but the consequences when a case is reported are high.

“It spreads so easily and so quickly,” Rombalski said.

Gundersen Health System Infection Preventionist Megan Meller said the last regional outbreak took months.

“The last one we know of in this area was in Minneapolis and that took a couple of months to get under control,” Meller said.

Seven businesses in the La Crosse community have been identified as places the infected person visited between April 13 and 16.

They include Comfort Inn and Dollar Tree in Onalaska, Fairfield Inn and Texas Roadhouse in La Crosse, Champions Riverside Resort, Beedle’s Bar and Restaurant, and St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Galesville.

“If you were at one of those facilities, at one of the dates and times listed, then you were potentially exposed to measles,” Rombalski said.

Health officials said the virus can hang in the air for over two hours and can linger in the body for days without any symptoms.

“You are infectious four days before you even start showing a rash so that’s a lot of time to expose a lot more people before you are even aware yourself that you have it,” Meller said.

The respiratory disease causes high fever, runny nose, red-watery eyes and a rash. Health experts said anyone at these locations who develops these symptoms should seek medical attention immediately by calling first.

“Don’t go to the healthcare provider’s facility because you could potentially expose others to measles,” Rombalski said.

She said there is a vaccine health experts say people should have.

“It’s just a good time to be updated on your immunizations.”

Meller said the disease would not be a problem if more people were vaccinated.

“This is one of those viruses that could be entirely preventable and we could eradicate from this earth if we had 100 percent vaccination,” Meller said.

La Crosse Public Health experts say you should not be concerned if you were not at the locations listed from April 13 through April 16.

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