County sees first measles "cluster" in 17 years
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
After San Diego outbreak, health officials remind parents to get kids vaccinated | ∞
Three students at a San Diego school have been diagnosed with measles, creating San Diego County's first "cluster" outbreak of the disease in 17 years, public health officials said Monday.
Officials think the three children, who are related and not vaccinated, contracted the disease on a recent family trip to Europe, said county Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten.
Wooten said the outbreak should remind parents to get their children immunized -- an effort that is not meeting national goals in the county, according to a 2007 San Diego County Report Card on Children and Families released Monday afternoon.
"This is a vaccine-preventable disease," Wooten said of the measles outbreak. "Since 2003, we've only had a total of four (isolated) cases. In 2007, 2004 and 2002 we didn't have any cases at all."
Wooten and San Diego Cooperative Charter School officials said Monday that they were notifying parents and other students of the outbreak, and that the three children were "absolutely fine" and recovering at home.
Measles, a highly contagious disease caused by a virus, has been nearly eradicated in the United States by vaccinations. Although people can die of the disease -- which causes a red-dot rash, high fever, cough, runny nose, red, watery eyes and ear aches -- they rarely do.
More often, victims die of measles complications. Those can include diarrhea, pneumonia, swelling of the brain and seizures.
The disease is increasingly rare in the United States, but it is common in Europe, Japan and other countries. It has been known to kill as many as one of every four people in developing countries, according to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC spokesman Curtis Allen said the last big outbreaks in the United States were in 1991.
Allen said 120 children were killed and 11,000 more were hospitalized that year. He said public health officials increased their efforts to get children immunized after that, and that there were only 55 reported cases in the country in 2007.
Wooten said that three children died of the disease in San Diego County in 1990, when there were 985 reported cases.
But Wooten said a person who has had even a single vaccination is immune to the disease 95 percent of the time if exposed.
Children in the United States usually get two measles immunizations, once at 12 months old and again between the ages of 4 and 6.
The vaccinations are known as "MMRs," for measles, mumps and rubella, also known as the German measles.
The county's report card on children and families reported that about 83 percent of children in San Diego County received their basic childhood immunizations in 2006 -- a figure that was higher than the state average but lower than federal public health officials' national objective of 90 percent.
-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
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Taxpayer wrote on Feb 5, 2008 3:57 AM:It should be a requirement for students attending government-funded schools to be fully immunized. What protections or reasons do we have left to support the system?
Irresponsible parents wrote on Feb 5, 2008 5:41 AM:caused this outbreak. Vaccinate your children. This is a preventable disease.
Jane wrote on Feb 5, 2008 9:53 AM:Parents have the right to choose not to vaccinate. Only their children may become sick. If other parents choose to vaccinate, theirs won't. The risk is only to the family who chooses not to vaccinate for physical or spiritual reasons.
CommonSense wrote on Feb 5, 2008 11:43 AM:Jane .. are you willing to risk your childs life to others physical or spiritual reasons? Not me. Get the vaccinations or find another school system to go to.
Also to Jane wrote on Feb 5, 2008 1:45 PM:Parents who demand their right not to vaccinate their kids should use their right to homeschool them. Vaccines, like birth control aren't always foolproof.
Measles and Chicken Pox wrote on Feb 5, 2008 4:08 PM: Both of my children were vaccinated as babies but when my now-13 yr old went to London over the summer, I asked if she should get a booster and was told no. Well, guess what? She developed chickenpox two wks from returning home and we waited for her 10 yr old brother to get it but he didn't because his vaccine was still working. So even if you've been vaccinated, get another booster when kids are in middle school and make sure the schools enforce vaccines for kids from other parts of the world.
We are one of the healthiest countries in the world - let's keep it that way.
Alf wrote on Feb 5, 2008 5:28 PM:I married a pediatrician. The number of ignorant, incompetent and paranoid people who refuse to vaccinate and/or give boosters to their children for whatever reason is causing diseases that were thought to be wiped out to start showing up. The fools who decline vaccinations based on scare stories need to be brought up on charges of child endangerment, IMHO. Do you really want to see a resurgence of POLIO, "the summer killer" that required "the iron lung"? Anyone who does a REAL risk/benefit analysis BASED ON FACTS would do EACH AND EVERY VACCINATION AND BOOSTER! We pass un-Constitutional propositions "for the children" and YET WE ALLOW people to ENDANDER THOSE SAME CHILDREN because they have read pseudo-scientific, half-truths and anti-medical garbage that does not compare the risks of vaccinating to the risks of not doing so and does not take into consideration the risks posed to OTHERS IN SOCIETY BY THE IRRATIONAL decisions of a few. (My wife may have used stronger words or not.) Regards, Alf.
Jenny wrote on Feb 17, 2008 10:18 PM:Just a thought to ponder. I use to be all for vaccines. However,my daughter now suffers a seizure disorder and autoimmune disorder because of her vaccines. She can die from other common diseases after the vaccines which were suppose to protect her. It is true that vaccines can be dangerous. It is also true that one can still get the disease even though vaccinated. She reacted the first time they gave her the shots. However, they told me it would be better to go ahead and finish the vaccines and just monitor in the hospital. I vaccinated her again and almost lost her. She will suffer the rest of her life. Please please do not vaccinate without research and do not vaccinate all at once. A healthy diet is the best way to prevent disease and help children that do get sick. Parents are feeding their kids garbage these days and think nothing of it. NOW THAT IS IRRESPONSIBLE PARENTING!!!!! Soda, excessive juice intake, hot dogs, canned veggies, chocolate milk, etc are not health foods and should not be fed to kids period. Do your research on diet or else your kid is going to die of diabetes, cancer, infections, etc. We scream at those who do not vaccinate but we could be doing much worse in how we feed our kids.
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