To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate: Disneyland Measles Outbreak Fuels Vaccination Debate

Disneyland may no longer be the happiest place on earth for the more than 40 people who contracted the measles while visiting the popular California theme park in early January.

In the month between the Disneyland outbreak and Jan. 30, 102 cases of the measles have been reported in 14 states, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Many have blamed the current measles outbreak on unvaccinated kids. Or, more likely, the parents who choose not to vaccinate them.

For example, one California school banned 40 unvaccinated children from school for a week after a staff member reported possibly having the measles. And a father of a 6-year-old boy fighting leukemia pleaded to school officials to force unvaccinated kids to stay home from school.

“If you choose not to immunize your own child and your own child dies because they get measles, OK, that’s your responsibility, that’s your choice,” Carl Krawitt, the boy’s father, told NPR. “But if your child gets sick and gets my child sick and my child dies, then ... your action has harmed my child.”

In the face of the current measles outbreak, stories like Krawitt’s have brought to light an ongoing debate weighing risks and rewards of vaccinating your children.

Many in the “don’t-you-stick-that-needle-in-my-kid” camp argue vaccines do more harm than good and can cause developmental problems and chronic illnesses like autism, ADHD, asthma and allergies.

Anti-vaccine advocates like the Rage Against The Vaccines group on Facebook, which has 5,960 likes, are outraged that the current measles outbreak has been largely blamed on unvaccinated children.

Their argument? The 2011 measles outbreak in Canada – which the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) called the largest measles epidemic in North America in the past decade – happened in a community where approximately 97 percent of children 3 and older had been vaccinated.

But children between 12 and 17 years old made up the majority of measles cases in Canada that year and only 22 percent of kids in that age group had gotten a second dose of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.

Anyone over 4 years old needs to get a second dose of the measles vaccine in order for the shot to be effective, according to the CDC.

And kids aren’t the only ones who need to get vaccinated. The CDC provides the following chart to show adults which vaccinations they should be getting when:

On the other side of the debate are vaccine advocates who say vaccines pose very little risk and save millions in the United States from completely preventable diseases.

And scientific data tends to agree.

Before the live measles vaccine was licensed in 1963, an average of 549,000 measles cases and 495 measles deaths were reported in the United States every year, according to the CDC. In 2000, the United States declared measles eliminated – meaning that, although cases of the measles are still reported in the United States each year, the disease is no longer common.

In recent years, however, measles outbreaks have become more frequent.

The CDC reported 23 outbreaks of the measles in 2014, including one that affected 383 people. The majority of people who contracted the measles during that outbreak were unvaccinated Amish people living in Ohio.

Measles in Massachusetts?

In May 2014, during the year’s biggest outbreak, the CDC warned Massachusetts residents that the state could be among the hardest-hit by the disease.

Health officials blamed the state’s risk on Boston’s function as an international hub - measles outbreaks in the United States often start internationally - and on a drop in vaccinations.

Luckily for Massachusetts residents, the state has not yet been affected by the current outbreak. As of Tuesday, Feb. 3, no cases of the measles had been reported in Massachusetts this year.

The 14 states that have reported cases of the measles are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Pennsylvania.

School officials in Pennsylvania issue warning

Local schools in Pennsylvania, following the advice of state officials, are warning people who have not been vaccinated against measles to protect themselves after a nationwide outbreak of the highly contagious disease has reached the state.

“Measles is a potentially very serious and highly contagious virus,” said Acting Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine of the Pennsylvania Department of Health. “This case underscores the importance of having all children appropriately immunized according to recommended guidelines.”

One Pennsylvania school district posted to its website this week warning unvaccinated residents to see their doctor for a shot.

“Measles is considered one of the most dangerous childhood illnesses and in rare cases leads to death. It can also strike adults, causing problems such as miscarriage in pregnant women,” the school district said on its website.

According to figures reported by the Morning Call, Pennsylvania has one of the worst vaccination rates among kindergartners. About 85 percent of Pennsylvania kindergartners were vaccinated during the 2013-2014 school year, the publication reported.

The symptoms of measles generally appear about seven to 14 days after a person is infected. The first signs are high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes, according to the CDC.

Complications from measles can include ear infection, diarrhea and pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and even death, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Measles can also cause miscarriages or premature delivery in pregnant women.

The following people are at the highest risk of getting the measles:

• Infants under a year old who are too young to have received the vaccine
• People born after 1957 who received only one dose of the MMR vaccine
• People who have refused vaccination
• People from parts of the world with low vaccination rates
• People vaccinated from 1963 to 1967 with an inactivated vaccine and who haven’t been re-vaccinated

What you should know about the measles, according to health officials:

• Simply being in the same room with someone who has measles is sufficient to become infected.
• Usually about 8-12 days (but up to 21 days) after exposure, measles begins with a mild to moderate fever accompanied by cough, runny nose, and red eyes.
• Two or three days later, the fever spikes, often as high as 104-105°F.
• At the same time, a red blotchy rash appears, usually first on the face, along the hairline and behind the ears.
• The rash rapidly spreads downward to the chest and back and, finally, to the thighs and feet.
• Most students with measles are sick enough that they miss at least a week of school.
• One in every 20 people with measles develops pneumonia; more rarely, serious, even life-threatening complications can occur.
• The MMR vaccine is effective and safe, and two doses are recommended for all children.
• If you think you or your child may have the measles, call your doctor before showing up the office so that your medical provider can take precautions to make sure you don’t further spread the virus.

Patch editor Kara Seymour contributed to this story.

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