Author: WisContext

In the early 1980s, a new mysterious malady captured the attention of public health professionals. Initially labeled GRID, which stood for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, these clusters of illnesses seemed to largely be an issue only on the East and West coasts. But Wisconsin’s government was taking action, laying the groundwork for a public health response for what would come to be known as AIDS. R. Richard Wagner served as the first out gay Dane County Board commissioner and was co-chair of the Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues, convened in 1983 by Gov. Tony Earl, a Democrat. The group...

Within two months of the day COVID-19 was first identified in Wisconsin, the state saw a sustained surge of new cases, racing past 1,200 lab-confirmed infections by the end of March 2020. The true number of people with COVID-19 in Wisconsin is undoubtedly much higher than the official tally, and continues to climb, though no one knows by exactly how much. “It’s fair to assume that … as high as 10 times as many people have been infected compared to what’s diagnosed,” said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases at the Wisconsin Department...

The COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping across Wisconsin. The outbreak is having major ramifications for public health and hospital systems, which in turn affects the ongoing spread of the disease. Understanding where, when and how rapidly COVID-19 arises around Wisconsin — and how badly its effects are felt — is a matter of constantly moving targets. It can be difficult to keep up with and make sense of the information related to COVID-19 infections and fatalities being shared by state and local health departments on an almost hourly basis. Tracking data related to the pandemic can help clarify this torrent...

Public health authorities and medical professionals in Wisconsin are preparing for potential cases of a respiratory virus that’s new to humans, having emerged in China and subsequently spreading around the world. The 2019 novel coronavirus, also called 2019-nCoV for short, is related to viruses that cause the common cold. It also has similarities to viruses responsible for more serious respiratory illnesses, such as the deadly outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003. As of the beginning of February 2020, the newly identified virus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan in central China, has killed hundreds and sickened...