A measles outbreak is occurring and has hit college campuses. Scott Jaschik from Inside Higher reports.

Responding to Measles Outbreak

A measles outbreak in the United States — largely tied to exposure at Disneyland — is causing alarm across the United States, and at least four colleges have students with the disease.

Measles can be a very serious disease, and has been thought to be largely eradicated in the United States. But the recent outbreak points to the potential for such a disease to spread, especially since the growing antivaccination movement means that some people lack protection against the disease. Contagious diseases always cause worry on college campuses, where students are in very close physical proximity in classes and, for residential campuses, in dormitories.

“This is absolutely a concern for campuses,” Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and president of the American College Health Association, said via e-mail. The association sent an alert to members last week urging campuses to prepare for the possible spread of measles. The latest briefing from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be found here.

Van Orman said there are two “critical actions” colleges should be taking right now. They should be “reviewing the immunization status of their students and when possible contacting students who are not fully immunized to encourage them to complete this,” she said. Further, colleges should be “reviewing and updating their general communicable disease emergency response plans with attention to measles.”

She noted that the American College Health Association has expressed concern about the potential danger caused by those who decline to get their children vaccinated. A statement that the association adopted in 2014 states that colleges that require students to be vaccinated should enforce those rules and have a high bar for exemptions.