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A 7-year-old boy traveled to Switzerland with his family early this year and returned to his San Diego home Jan. 13. He developed a fever and sore throat about a week later but went to school. When his condition worsened, he was taken to the family doctor’s office. By Feb. 1, the boy – who was not vaccinated – was diagnosed with measles. He infected five children at his school and four more at the pediatrician’s office.
At his school, almost 10 percent of the children had on file a copy of California’s personal belief exemption, a form that allows parents to exempt their children from school immunization requirements on grounds that they are contrary to their beliefs.
Indiana has a similar exemption, allowing parents to opt out for religious reasons, although currently fewer than 1 percent do so. But public health officials worry that the increasing number of exemptions – fueled by concerns over vaccines and autism – threatens to bring back childhood diseases that were nearly eradicated in the U.S., exposing children to dangers they should no longer face.
And lest you believe it’s just trend-setting California where parents are declining immunizations, consider that in 2005 a Lafayette 17-year-old who had not been vaccinated took a mission trip to Romania. There, she worked at an orphanage and hospital where a measles outbreak was later reported. When the girl arrived home, she attended a church gathering with several hundred people present, including some who had not been vaccinated for reasons other than medical exemptions. The result was 34 cases of measles, including one in which the patient required six days of ventilator support, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kelly Zachrich, executive director of Super Shot and the Indiana Immunization Coalition, said the issue was discussed at the National Immunization Conference she attended just last week.
“Parents hear more and more about autism,” she said. “Yet we’ve had something like 10 studies looking at vaccines and autism, and after 10 studies, we still have no link.”
While stories about autism and immunizations continue to surface, thanks to celebrities and politicians such as Indiana’s own Rep. Dan Burton, young parents don’t have a frame of reference that includes the dangers of childhood disease. Zachrich points to the figures: 10,000 children paralyzed by polio; 3,000 children a year killed by measles; diphtheria as a common cause of death in school-age children; 8,000 children a year killed by pertussis – most of them younger than than a year old.
“Generations ago, parents saw the benefits of immunizations, and they didn’t even question the value,” she said. “Children have benefited more from vaccines than from any other preventive program in history.”
There are sound medical and public health reasons why Indiana and other states require children to be immunized. There are also sound reasons for allowing exemptions. But a selfish notion that everyone else’s immunized children will serve as protection for your own is not a valid reason for allowing parents to opt out.
The Indiana Department of Health is doing a good job of encouraging immunizations, but it might want to rethink its message in terms of parents who believe unproven risks outweigh the protection that vaccines offer from diseases like measles, which can cause pneumonia and brain swelling. Health officials have made too much progress to be waylaid by parents lulled into a false sense of security.
