February 1 - 15, 2000 news reports about measles and vaccination

Next update: March 1, 2001

Seattle Measles Outbreak (3 reports)

Measles Likely Came from S. Korea;

4 of 9 Cases Possibly Linked to Child Who Traveled Overseas

SOURCE: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

DATE: February 10, 2001

 

Health officials believe the measles outbreak in King County may have been caused by a student's travels to South Korea. The number of confirmed measles stood at nine yesterday, with four cases stemming from exposure at the private Northwest School for the Arts and Humanities on Capitol Hill. The other five cases, which form a second cluster, are in South King County.

 

"We strongly suspect the cluster at Northwest School came from South Korea," said James Apa of the Seattle-King County Health Department. "One of the ill students recently visited the country. There are outbreaks right now in Korea and Japan," Apa said.

 

Officials aren't sure whether the cases in South King County have a similar origin. Because of the heavy community exposure from these cases, health officials recommend that anyone born in 1957 or later review his or her measles immunization record. "Adults who are uncertain about their immunization history should consider getting a measles vaccination now", Apa said. Parents of children over age 1 should consider getting them immunized now if they haven't yet had the appropriate number of measles vaccination doses for their age.

 

Measles is a viral respiratory disease spread by the airborne route. Initial symptoms include cough, runny nose, watery eyes, a high fever and rash. Anyone who suspects he or she has symptoms should call his or her local health provider or the Health Department at 206-296-4774.

 

Eight Cases of Red Measles Reported in Seattle Area

SOURCE: The Associated Press State & Local Wire (Seattle, WA)

BYLINE: Warren King; Seattle Times staff reporter

DATE: February 8, 2001

 

Eight cases of red measles, rubeola, have been confirmed in King County in the past three weeks, and local health officials say another case is suspected and more are expected.

 

"We fully anticipate more confirmed cases, given the broad range of public exposures," said James Apa, a spokesman for Public Health-Seattle & King County.

 

"No cases have been reported outside the state's most populous county, nor have any of the cases to date resulted in more serious complications from the highly contagious disease", Apa said.

 

Usually only a few cases are reported across the state per year. "The unimmunized can be a danger in the community. When there are more of them, the disease is more likely to spread," said Dr. Edgar Marcuse, an expert on immunizations at Children's Hospital.

 

More than 90 percent of the population is immunized from vaccination or from having had the disease. About 98 percent of school-age children have had the two vaccinations needed for complete immunization. About 30 percent of measles patients experience complications, including 18 percent who are hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

The most common complications are diarrhea in 8 percent, ear infections in 7 percent, almost all children, and pneumonia - the most common cause of death related to measles - in 6 percent. About one in 1,000 cases results in encephalitis, brain swelling that can cause convulsions, coma and long-term damage such as deafness. About two cases in 1,000 cause death.

 

Eight King County Cases of Red Measles Confirmed

Another Suspected in Outbreak of Disease That Is Highly Contagious

SOURCE: The Seattle Times

DATE: February 8, 2001

 

For nearly a month, Surai Saulo sat beside the hospital bed of her 8-month-old daughter Sarah, terrified by what she saw.

 

How could a case of the red measles become so devastating, she wondered over and over. Sarah's brain was swollen and she did not open her eyes for weeks. She was fed by tubes leading into her tiny body. She could breathe only with the help of an oxygen tube.

 

"Every night when we would go to sleep, we thought maybe we would be next for the doctor to come out to tell us, 'She didn't make it,' " Saulo recalled in detail yesterday.

 

Sarah was successfully treated at Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center for encephalitis, a complication of measles. She is now a healthy, bright 11-year-old, living in Portland with her family. But Saulo knows all too well how a measles outbreak like the current one in King County can be devastating. "It was so scary. ... People need to take measles seriously. Sometimes it's more than just a bunch of spots. They need to take kids for their shots and keep an eye out for them."

 

Eight cases of the red measles, or rubeola, have been confirmed--and another is suspected--in the county in the past three weeks. None has been reported outside King County. Health officials expect more. Calls continue to come into Public Health--Seattle & King County from area residents who believe they were exposed to the highly contagious disease and have symptoms. Usually only a few cases are reported statewide each year.

 

"We fully anticipate more confirmed cases, given the broad range of public exposures," said James Apa, a spokesman for the department. Officials said none so far has resulted in complications.

 

Complications occur in about 30 percent of measles cases, including 18 percent who are hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are most common among children younger than 5 and adults 20 and older. The disease can be particularly difficult for adults.

 

The most common complications are: diarrhea, 8 percent; ear infections (almost all in children), 7 percent; and pneumonia, the most common cause of death, 6 percent. About one in 1,000 cases results in encephalitis, brain swelling that can cause convulsions, coma and long-term damage such as deafness. About two cases in 1,000 cause death: in children, usually from pneumonia and in adults, usually from encephalitis.

 

"The unimmunized can be a danger in the community. When there are more of them, the disease is more likely to spread," said Dr. Edgar Marcuse, an expert on immunizations at Children's.

 

More than 90 percent of the population is immunized, either from being vaccinated or from having had the disease. About 98 percent of school-age children have had the two vaccinations needed for complete immunization.

 

About 95 percent of those who receive only one dose, given at age 12 months to 15 months, are immune; and more than 99 percent are immune after the second dose, usually given before entering school.

 

Sometimes even children of conscientious parents don't beat the odds. Janet Harrington's 9-year-old daughter had one dose of the vaccine at age 5 in Texas but came down with the disease a few weeks ago. She is home-schooled and has been in only one public place recently.

 

"All she did was walk through the (Northgate) mall and shop in a couple of stores," said Harrington, a North End resident. "It's pretty alarming that it's that contagious."

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Other U.S. Reports (2 reports)

Refusing Childhood Immunization Is Risky

BYLINE: Linda Seebach

SOURCE: Scripps Howard News Service

DATE: February 02, 2001

 

Two Denver-area children died of influenza in January, and for a heart-stopping moment parents were reminded that not so very long ago, children's lives were fragile and often brief.

 

Immunization against childhood diseases now prevents many deaths and an untold number of serious, debilitating illnesses. Yet some parents worry more about the risks from the immunizations than they do about the risks from the diseases the immunizations avert.

 

Parents may feel they are playing Russian roulette with the lives of their children, whichever choice they make, and in the sense that no one can predict who will react badly to a generally safe vaccine or which unvaccinated child will fall seriously ill, that's true. But parents should realize that if they deny their children immunization, they are deliberately leaving more bullets in the gun.

 

Colorado has relatively relaxed laws concerning immunization. Though the law requires parents to have their children immunized before they start school, it allows exemptions for medical or religious reasons, as almost all states do. And it's one of only 15 states that also allow exemption for "philosophical" reasons.

 

A study of Colorado's exempt children published in the Dec. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association compares their rates of measles and pertussis (whooping cough) with those of immunized children. The results for children 3 to 18: exempt children were 22 times more likely to get measles and six times more likely to get pertussis.

 

The study's lead author is Daniel Feikin of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Co-authors include Dennis Lezotte and Richard Hamman of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Richard Hoffman of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

 

"As the frequency of vaccine-preventable diseases has decreased, fewer persons have ever witnessed a child who is severely ill with a vaccine-preventable disease," the authors write. "As a result, parents today might perceive a greater risk in having their children vaccinated than in not having them vaccinated."

 

The number of Colorado children exempted for medical reasons is tiny, 891 in 1998, and the rate (0.12 percent) is nearly constant over the last decade. The rate for religious exemptions is also small, 0.18 percent, and it has been declining. But the number choosing exemption for philosophical reasons is 10 times higher than that, and at 13,991 it has more than doubled since 1987.

 

Hoffman emphasizes that these are contagious diseases. So parents who refuse immunization are putting not only their own but other children at risk. The researchers calculated that for each 1 percent increase in the number of exempt children in a school, the risk of a pertussis outbreak rose by 12 percent.

 

And since vaccines are effective but not perfect, even children who have been vaccinated against a disease are more likely to contract it as the number of unvaccinated children rises. At least 11 percent of vaccinated children in measles outbreaks caught it from an exempt child.

 

Severe side effects from the new diphtheria-tetanus- pertussis vaccine used since 1997 are extremely rare, around 25 per 100,000, and permanent consequences virtually unknown. (Never say "never," Hoffman cautioned.) In contrast, from 1996 through 1998, 3-to-5-year-old exempt children contracted pertussis at a rate of 191 per 100,000, compared with 11 per 100,000 for vaccinated children.

 

"In 2000", Hoffman said, "there were 476 cases of pertussis in Colorado, the most in any year since 1963. Two infants died. They were less than two months old, too young to have been immunized themselves, but it appears they caught the disease from older siblings who were not protected.

 

I wouldn't argue for the repeal of the philosophical exemption. Philosophical views may be held every bit as tenaciously as religious ones, and deserve as much respect. Also, parents may wish to make distinctions among the long list of immunizations that are recommended, which is not possible if they claim a religious exemption.

 

But I would urge every family that may be considering exemption to evaluate the scientific evidence and not lightly expose their children and others' to unnecessary danger."

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Thousands of Students Need Immunizations

SOURCE: The Associated Press State & Local Wire (PORTLAND, Ore.)

DATE: January 31, 2001
  

Thousands of Oregon students may have to miss classes for a few hours or even a few days to get their immunizations updated before a Feb. 21 exclusion deadline.

About 25,000 warning letters will be mailed by next Wednesday to Oregon parents with children in public and private schools, certified day-care centers and Head Start programs. Last year, counties sent out 19,000 letters. Much of the increase is due to new immunization requirements for seventh-graders, said Lorraine Duncan, immunization chief for the Health Division.

A 1997 state rule change requires Oregon's current crop of 42,000 seventh-graders to get new immunizations. One is for chicken pox, if the child hasn't had the disease. Another is a second dose for measles. Then there are two to three shots to protect against the hepatitis B virus.

In Multnomah County, letters will be sent out to the parents of about 2,500 seventh-graders - that's 37 percent of the district's seventh-graders - warning that their kids could be sent home from school. Spot checks of other counties show that roughly 40 percent of seventh-graders in Clackamas, 35 percent in Washington, 30 percent in Union and 25 percent in Deschutes face being turned away.

School nurses and county health departments are scheduling dozens of free clinics to prepare for a vaccination rush. The Oregon Health Division is sounding a statewide alarm. On Monday, administrator Dr. Martin Wasserman will hold a news conference to encourage parents to get their children immunized.

"We're looking at a substantial number of kids who could miss school," Wasserman said. "To look at the number of parents who haven't done the job they've had three years to do is astounding to me."

Health and education officials say middle school students and their parents are difficult to target because teen-agers often don't bring information home from school. And many parents simply think that once kids get kindergarten shots, they're done.

"People don't think about immunizations past the age of 5," said Dana Lord, public health programs manager for Clackamas County. "They think shots are for babies."

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This page last modified on February 14, 2001