Official Urge Vaccinations amid Northwest Measles Outbreak

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Public health officials scrambling to contain a measles outbreak in the U.S. Northwest warned people to vaccinate their children Monday and worried that it could take months to contain the highly contagious viral illness due to a lower-than-normal vaccination rate at the epicenter of the crisis. The outbreak near Portland has sickened 35 people in Oregon and Washington since Jan. 1, with 11 more cases suspected. Most of the patients are children under 10, and one child has been hospitalized. Health officials say the outbreak is a textbook example of why it's critical to vaccinate against measles, which was eradicated in the U.S. after the vaccine was introduced in 1963. In recent years, however, the viral illness has popped up again from New York to California and sickened hundreds. Clark County, Washington, has a vaccination rate of 78 percent, well below the level necessary to protect those with compromised immune systems or who can't get vaccinated because of medical issues or because they are too young. Misinformation is circulating on social media, said Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County public health director. "What keeps me up at night is eventually having a child die from this completely preventable situation," he said. "It's still out there, even though it's been debunked, that the measles vaccine results in autism. That's nonsense." Before mass vaccination, 400 to 500 people in the United States died of the measles every yea...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: News Patient Care Operations Source Type: news