By Tracy Gilsvik,
Lake County Public Health Supervisor
Doesn’t it seem like there are more plane crashes than usual? I thought so, then looked it up:
From the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) through April 12 there were 52 more plane crashes in 2024 than there were in 2025.
Sometimes being wrong is the best news.
We’re also hearing a lot about measles. Unfortunately, what seems to be an increase is a true increase. I don’t even want to list all the states that have reported people with measles in case the data changes by the time this is printed.
Measles is highly infectious for all ages, not just for kids; and the infection can have long-term effects. If one person has it, of every 10 people they expose who are not protected against measles, up to 9 people will become infected. If you have concerns that you or your infant/child was exposed to someone with measles and is showing signs of illness, call a health care provider promptly.
Unfortunately, just like with COVID, flu, and colds, we are infectious with measles before we know we are sick. Infants and others under age five are highly vulnerable to the complications of the disease. While this article is less about measles disease and more about what would happen if there were a case in Lake County, I can’t resist listing the first symptoms that appear: high fever, cough, runny nose, red, watery eyes. Two to three days later tiny white spots may appear inside the mouth (Koplik spots). Then the measles rash begins as flat red spots that appear on the face at the hairline. The rash spreads downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs, and feet. When the rash appears, a person’s fever may spike to more than 104° Fahrenheit. Sounds miserable. And those are the typical symptoms. There is a long list of potential more serious consequences of getting this disease.
But what about Lake County? IF there is a person or people with measles in our county, will our little public health department be able to deal with this? Absolutely not! Not alone anyway. Thankfully, there is a whole system to support us. Measles is just one of the highly infectious diseases that must be reported by health professionals immediately to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). (This data is all public; you can look it up if you’re interested.) MDH and Lake County Public Health will collaborate to work with the person or people diagnosed with measles to interrupt transmission and to protect the health of the public.
Unfortunately, by the time someone is diagnosed, many will likely have been exposed. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try to contain the disease.
Like MDH staff do with people diagnosed with other reportable infectious diseases, they would talk with the person or people with measles. Part of the conversation would be to identify others who were exposed. If MDH staff have trouble connecting with people, or if the situation becomes too large, they would ask for our department’s assistance. There are so many potential scenarios and challenges including determining the context of the exposure. Was it local or out-of-state? Was there a public or private event where exposure occurred? If there was someone with measles in a childcare center, or home childcare, our team might be able to respond faster than MDH. Essentially, we’d be working together to inform people of exposure while protecting the privacy of the affecting person or people. Sometimes, in small towns, this all happens naturally and fast, especially if everyone is upfront about what is happening with their or their child’s infectious disease.
Another system we have in Minnesota is a Health Advisory Network (HAN) Alert. This HAN system is one way to inform our health care providers. Alerts include new infectious diseases and their symptoms, new medication shortages, and other concerning issues in the state. If there were new measles outbreaks in the region or the state, we’d learn through this system and through our MDH partners.
If a person with measles is diagnosed in Lake County and we start communicating this information with the public, you may feel frustrated by not having more details. Recall the first person with COVID in Lake County. The only information our department could say was that there was someone with COVID. But where exactly did this person live? Where did they work? Those are things we couldn’t share. We received a lot of phone calls from people wanting to know more. The same will happen with any other communicable disease like measles. We keep private information private, but we will inform the community of the public data we have.
