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Experts Say Vaccination Is The Best Way To Prevent Outbreaks

The increasing number of families actively declining immunizations for their children contributes to widespread outbreaks of preventable illnesses, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The number of measles cases in California continues to rise in what has become the state’s worst outbreak in more than a decade. The country is documenting more measles cases than it usually sees in an entire year — and it’s not even February.

Experts say these outbreaks could be avoided if more parents chose to vaccinate their children. A recent report from Ross Silverman, a professor at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Fairbanks School of Public Health, found that Indiana’s relatively strict vaccination requirements make the state less likely to suffer from widespread outbreaks.

His study looked at how exemptions are structured and the effect on the number of people receiving those exemptions. All but two states offer religious exemptions and only 17 states allow parents to reject vaccinations based on personal beliefs, which could include health or moral concerns.

“A state like Indiana only permits religious exemptions, whereas a state like California has a personal belief exemption and what we found it that states that have these personal belief exemptions have a far higher percentage of the population who end up taking those exemptions,” Silverman says.

He notes that the exemptions aren’t spread evenly throughout the state. Instead, they tend to be asked for in clustered communities.

“That creates these pockets of extreme vulnerability,” Silverman says.

Indiana requires all immunization records of children 18 and younger be reported to a centralized database in order to identify the vulnerable populations in case of an outbreak.

Robert Reiner, a professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health says some parents reject the vaccines because their fear of adverse reactions outweighs their concern for what they consider a rare illness.

“One of the reasons they’re relatively rare is because we have the vaccine,” Reiner says. “Once we get rid of the vaccine or once we allow these pockets to have this susceptibility, it can reemerge.”

And he says the illness won’t just reemerge within these small populations. Vaccines may not be effective for some people, and others may have documented medical purposes for not receiving the vaccine. He says those people depend on the herd immunity of the rest of the population; meaning they rely on the people around them to be immune from the vaccine-preventable illnesses.

“Having these pockets doesn’t give them this herd immunity,” Reiner says. “So with people making these personal choices, they’re not just endangering their children, but the children around them.”

Dr. Scot Moore, a pediatrician with Riley Physicians in Bloomington, says children today receive 14 different vaccinations. He says some parents are against vaccines because the supposed link between the MMR vaccine and autism. However, he says that link between the two does not exist.

“I do have patients occasionally who don’t want to get vaccines or they want to use an alternate schedule,” Moore says.

When parents consider foregoing vaccines, starting them later or spreading them out, Moore says he is usually successful at convincing them to stick to the schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics. He says it is important for parents and pediatricians to make decisions in children’s best interest.

“This is a relationship that we try to develop between the parents and me and trying to take care of the child the best we can,” Moore says. “I’m hoping they’re coming to me for my advice and I try to give them what I think is the best.”

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