Clark County, the US state of Washington, has faced a major measles outbreak. Since the outbreak, an appalling 50 cases have been counted, which is more likely to increase further before it falls.
In 2017, only 78 percent of preschoolers in the county had their full shots, which was a 7 percent below state average.
Last years, around this time, country health clinics had ordered for 530 doses of one of two types of measles vaccine. However, this year, they have order five times the amount, totaling around 3,150 doses of measles vaccine.
Virginia Ramos, Sea Mar Community Health Center infection control nurse, told Kaiser Health News, “During an outbreak is when you see an influx of patients who would otherwise be vaccine-hesitant.” “We’re just happy that we’re prepared and that there is vaccine available.”
Clark County has many vaccine-hesitant parents, from merely dubious to ardent opponents.
Some reports have surfaced of people across the state that medicating measles vaccine with vitamin A. The Washington State Department of Health tweeted, “Vitamin A cannot prevent or cure the measles. For a child with a healthy diet in the US, taking more vitamin A will not have any effect on their measles disease as they already get enough of it.
The only way to avoid getting measles is to be vaccinated against it.”
With low immunity, communicable diseases have a great opportunity to spread within a community. Highly contagious pathogens such as measles can be controlled if 90 to 95 percent of the population is immunized.
In this outbreak, more than 40 of those suffered from measles were children who did not take the measles vaccine. One of the children had received just a single shot, while for others, there is no history of measles vaccination.
Health officials say whether this measles outbreak will have a long-term impact on the country’s immunization culture is left to be seen.
Alan Melnick, Clark County health officers, said, “I would rather it not take an outbreak for this to happen.”
Clark County standouts, but it is not alone. In January, there were 79 cases of measles across 10 US states; New York City also had measles outbreaks.
Last years, we saw many deaths across Europe during a measles outbreak, once again thanks to the anti-vaccination movement.
There is no need to remind people that measles is a deadly virus and we must protect our children with proper vaccination.
We can only hope this could be the worst we will see of this outbreak with vaccinations on the rise in Clark County.
