Viral outbreaks occur among mostly unvaccinated areas
Health researchers are sounding the alarm about measles hot spots around the country where viral outbreaks are most likely because large percentages of residents have refused vaccinations based on religious or philosophical beliefs.
Medical professionals point out that current measles outbreaks in Washington state and New York have occurred among mostly unvaccinated communities and can threaten public health beyond those geographic areas.
Researchers last year warned of a dozen states and cities where significant numbers of healthy kindergartners were not being vaccinated, especially for measles. One of those cities — Portland, Oregon — is dangerously close to a measles outbreak in Clark County, Washington, which declared a public health emergency last week.
“We have to stop the non-medical exemptions,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, who led the research on anti-vaccine hot spots. “It’s really come down to an interesting battle where you have parents rights versus children’s rights, in some ways.”
Dr. Hotez and his colleagues found an increase of non-medical vaccine exemptions since 2009 in 12 of the 18 states that allow them — and at least 15 metropolitan areas with low rates of vaccination among school-age children. Their findings were reported in the scientific publication PLOS Journal in June.