Madison parents are watching a measles outbreak in southwestern Wisconsin with concern, even as no cases had been reported in Dane County or the city as of Oct. 6. The state had recorded 258 measles cases in 2026 by that date, including 234 confirmed and six probable cases in Grant, Iowa, Lafayette and Vernon counties. Nearly all cases involved unvaccinated people. Five people had been hospitalized, and no deaths had been reported in the state outbreak. Meghan Carey, whose fourth- and second-grade children attend Madison public schools and are vaccinated, said the risk extends beyond families who choose not to vaccinate. She worries about children who cannot receive vaccines for medical reasons and about the wider community’s exposure. “It’s scary knowing that they are interacting daily with kids and potentially adults who might not be vaccinated,” Carey said. Madison school district health services coach Karilyn Stampfli said the district had heard little concern from parents but is tracking measles activity in Wisconsin and nearby communities. District health staff routinely prepare for infectious disease outbreaks and would coordinate with public health partners if a case affected local schools, she said. Dane County’s student vaccination rates are higher than Wisconsin’s overall, according to Public Health Madison & Dane County. For the 2025-26 school year, 95.9% of students at 192 county schools met the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination requirement. More than 90% of students met minimum immunization requirements overall. But rates vary by age. From 2020 through 2025, roughly 75% to 76% of Dane County 2-year-olds received the recommended childhood vaccine series, which includes MMR. Rates in nearby outbreak counties were lower: 47.8% in Grant, 66.4% in Iowa, 48.1% in Lafayette and 32.2% in Vernon. Wisconsin’s kindergarten MMR vaccination rate edged up from 84.8% in the 2024-25 school year to 85.1% in 2025-26, according to federal data. The state health department has said that remains below the roughly 95% coverage generally needed to prevent measles from spreading in a community. The standard schedule gives a child the first MMR dose at 12 months or older and the second at age 4 or older. The American Academy of Pediatrics says an earlier dose, beginning at 6 months, may be appropriate in some circumstances, including an outbreak or travel. Infants younger than 12 months face the greatest risk of severe measles illness. Madison resident Dan Marlin, whose children are 1 and 5 and both vaccinated, is considering whether his youngest should receive a second dose earlier than usual. The family enjoys traveling and spending time around the city, he said. “We don’t want to just be at home all the time.” Pediatrician Dipesh Navsaria, a UW-Madison professor, said the return of measles cases was foreseeable after years of vaccine hesitancy. He said misinformation has gained wider reach through social media and statements from prominent figures, making it harder for families to distinguish well-established vaccine evidence from misleading claims. Before a measles vaccine became available in 1963, nearly all U.S. children contracted the disease by age 15. About 500 people died and nearly 50,000 were hospitalized each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, though imported cases can still spark outbreaks when vaccination coverage is insufficient. Waivers from school vaccination requirements are also increasing. Nearly 8% of Wisconsin students and about 4% of Dane County students received a waiver for at least one vaccine in 2025-26. Personal-belief waivers were the most common. Nearly 1% of county students had waivers for all vaccines, a share that almost doubled from 2021-22, the county report said. Navsaria said rebuilding trust requires reaching families with accurate information rather than ridiculing those who have doubts. The stakes, he said, include protecting people who are too young or medically unable to be vaccinated as well as preventing avoidable illness in the wider community.