Santa Monica High School Baseball Coach Catches Measles

A freshman baseball coach at Santa Monica High School has contracted measles, parents and school staff were notified today.

The Los Angeles Times reports that officials investigated and concluded that it is unlikely the coach spread the virus to his team because all players on the team are vaccinated. According to the newspaper, no students have been asked to stay away from campus as happened at a Huntington Beach High School when a student there contracted virus earlier this month.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Principal Eva Mayoral said health officials “have advised us that there is only a small possibility your student has been exposed in this case; … the Department of Public Health is not directing us to take any special precautions or exclude any students at this time.”

Containing the outbreak could be a challenge because the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has one of the lowest kindergartner vaccination rates in the region. According to the LA Times, 11.5 percent of kindergartners in the district aren’t vaccinated, which is actually a decrease from last year’s kindergarten class in which less than 85 percent of the class was vaccinated.

The number of confirmed measles cases has reache 68 statewide and 21 in Orange County. Several school districts there are also in a precarious position with vaccination rates well below the threshold for herd immunity, which occurs when enough people are immune from a disease to halt its spread through the community. Herd immunity is acquired either through vaccination or previous exposure to the virus, said Dr. Gil Chavez, Deputy Director, State Epidemiologist, California Department of Public Health. The phenomenon of herd immunity protects the people most vulnerable to a disease. This includes infants too young for vaccination, or people whose immunity is suppressed, for example, cancer patients.

For highly contagious diseases such as the measles, the threshold for herd immunity is estimated at a 92-94% immunity rate within the population, said Chavez. Anything below that and the virus is likely to spread through the community. About 90 percent of unvaccinated people who come into contact with the measles will get it, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Huntington Beach has a confirmed case of measles its school district, and unvaccinated students there were sent home for three weeks to avoid the spread of the disease.

Stopping the spread of the virus can be an uphill battle because affluent communities have such low vaccination rates. Many parents choose not to vaccinate their children for fear that vaccines are linked to autism - even though such theories are considered debunked by the medical community.

“(Measles) is in the community,” said Nicole Stanfield, spokesperson for the Orange County Health Care agency. While most of the California measles cases this year involve people who were exposed to the disease at Disneyland in December, there have already been 10 people who contracted the disease out in the community, she said.

“It can be a very, very serious illness,” said Stanfield. Symptoms include very high fevers, coughing, runny noses, and a severe rash that spreads over the body. Children under the age of five and adults over 20 suffer the most severe symptoms. Complications can sometimes be fatal. For every 1,000 children who contract the measles, roughly one or two will die because of the disease. Worldwide, 122,000 people die every year from the measles, according to the Center for Disease Control.

The CDC recommends all children get two doses of the MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 through 15 months of age, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age. Children can receive the second dose earlier, but it has to be at least 28 days after the first dose. If you suspect you have measles symptoms, call your healthcare provider before showing up at your doctor’s office, said Stanfield. To avoid the spread of the disease, doctors will take special precautions such as conducting exams in your car or a quarantined exam room.