Major South County Pediatricians Change Vaccination Policy Amid Outbreak

After years of working with South Orange County parents amid the state’s lowest vaccination rates, a major pediatric medical provider will no longer serve families that are anti-vaccination.

Southern Orange County Pediatric Associates, which has offices in Ladera Ranch, Lake Forest, San Clemente and Rancho Santa Margarita, announced its change in policy this week.

“We have a large number of parents who come to our office who choose not to vaccinate or are on alternate vaccination schedules,” said Practice Administrator Melanie Jackson.

However, unvaccinated children infected with highly contagious diseases such as the current measles outbreak, could expose the practice’s most vulnerable patients, she noted.

“Our 12 physicians got together Tuesday night to discuss how we can protect patients who have not gotten the vaccine because they are not old enough or because of an underlying medical issue,” said Jackson.

The decision was unanimous. Southern Orange County Pediatric Associates will no longer serve families that won’t vaccinate.

“For a very long time, we have been respectful of a parent’s decision not to vaccinate,” said Jackson.

“Existing patients who are not willing to vaccinate are asked to seek health care with another practice,“ the firm announced on its website. “We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.”

The change in policy comes amid the worst measles outbreak in 15 years, prompting parents and lawmakers to reconsider the “personal belief” exemption to mandatory vaccinations.

Sens. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, and Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, who is also a pediatrician, said Wednesday they intended to introduce a bill eliminating the personal belief exemption from immunizing children.

A total of 99 cases of measles have been reported in California, according to the state Department of Public Health. There have been 31 in Orange County.

Nineteen of the 31 Orange County cases have no connection to Disneyland, according to Deanne Thompson of the OC Health Care Agency. Thirteen children have the measles with only one having been immunized and two were too young to get the MMR (measles, mumps rubella) shot, Thompson said.

Get Patched in! Sign up for Patch news alerts for your town.

Aliso Viejo · Fountain Valley · Laguna Beach · Laguna Niguel-Dana Point · Lake Forest · Los Alamitos-Seal Beach · Mission Viejo · Newport Beach-Corona Del Mar · Rancho Santa Margarita · San Juan Capistrano · San Clemente

• City News Service contributed to this report.