A person in Chippewa County has contracted measles, state health officials announced Sept. 22.
It's the third new county to report a measles case in the last week, and it comes amid burgeoning state and national disease numbers. Vernon and Marathon counties also reported cases last week, on top of the more than 160 cases tied to an outbreak in Grant, Iowa and Lafayette counties.
State health officials said they are not currently aware of any public places where someone could have been exposed to the Chippewa County resident unknowingly.
Wisconsin has reported over 170 measles cases this year, among more than 3,400 cases nationally. The disease, one of the world's most infectious, spreads quickly among people who have not received the measles vaccine or have not had the disease and built up antibodies.
Stephanie Schauer, immunization program manager for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, told the Journal Sentinel that one of the two cases reported in Vernon County is likely linked to the many other cases in southwest Wisconsin.
Health officials did not share information about how the Chippewa County case was acquired.
