Mouse to Mouse Resuscitation

While many of the reported measles cases can be traced to Disneyland, it would be grossly unfair to suggest that this Southern California mainstay is remotely the source or cause of the outbreak. Cases untraceable to Disneyland have popped up all over the United States, from Nebraska to New York, from Marin County California to Minnesota. Since New Year’s Day, the number of new cases is well over 100 and growing. But these cases threaten to breakout into thousands and…. Well you get it.

We thought we’d destroyed this virus fifteen years ago, but it’s baaaack! When I was a kid, measles was always something that spread through the kids, most from school activities. And for the most part, pock-marked kids recovered from the ailment a whole lot better than the adults.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus. It spreads through the air through coughing and sneezing. Measles starts with a fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes, and sore throat, and is followed by a rash that spreads all over the body. About three out of 10 people who get measles will develop one or more complications including pneumonia, ear infections, or diarrhea. Complications are more common in adults and young children.” And yes, while the mortality rate is not particularly high, it does exist and impacts the elderly and those with serious health issues much more severely.

Which comes to the most relevant aggregation point for the spread of this disease, the classroom. Measles is generally on the list of required vaccinations for young students enrolling in most public and private schools. Many jurisdictions have exemptions for students with strong religious convictions or medical reasons to the contrary, but some school districts will allow just about any objection from the parents to excuse vaccination.

To exacerbate a bad situation, there has been a completely erroneous myth circulating for years (emanating from a 1998 report since proven completely false), with the support of some reasonably high-profile celebrities, that take the position that autism is caused by measles vaccinations. And no matter how strong the evidence is that this “risk” is totally false, too many parents persist in believing this to be true. There are a lot of parents who have become a part of an even greater anti-vaccination movement, with consequences for other kids and society in general. Whether this stems from religious beliefs, erroneous medical information or just a desire to live a “natural life” (often seen in wealthier communities), too many children have not been vaccinated.

California is one state with lots of loopholes for those seeking to avoid vaccination. Birthday parties and sporting events have been curtailed as parents of vaccinated children do not want to mix with children of parents who will not permit such vaccinations. Orange County California, the home of Disneyland, is not altogether different from the rest of the state in vaccination practices. But the morality of allowing parents’ beliefs to compromise the health of those with different beliefs is indeed complex.

“The county’s vaccination rate for kindergartners is about 90 percent, a little lower than the statewide rate, 90.4 percent. But rates in some pockets, especially in the wealthier southern half, are sharply lower… ‘There are different threads of concern out there’ when it comes to vaccination, said Matt Zahn, the medical director for epidemiology at the Orange County Health Agency. ‘It becomes a game of Whack-a-Mole’: As soon as you get rid of one issue, there’s another.’

“The people most at risk of becoming seriously ill are babies too young to be vaccinated and the immunologically frail; measles can transform into something much worse, like encephalitis, and can be deadly. Among the fully vaccinated, the chances of contracting measles are small but do exist; the C.D.C. says the vaccine is more than 95 percent effective.

“On [January 30^th], all unvaccinated students who had been sent home from Huntington Beach High School after a possible measles exposure were allowed to return to school. But in Riverside County, officials reporting a probable case of a school employee with the measles ordered 40 students without vaccinations to stay home.” New York Times, January 30^th.

There is new legislation proposed in California, with support from Governor Jerry Brown, to abolish all religious and personal belief exemptions for vaccinations for school-bound children. As the February 6^th MotherJones.com noted in support: “There's no state in the nation that's more sympathetic to religious freedom than Mississippi. If it can ban exemptions for religious reasons, so can all the rest of us. The anti-vaxxers used to be an oddball nuisance, but in recent years they've turned deadly—and that means it's past time to start taking them seriously. No more exemptions for deadly communicable diseases.” Wow.

Who suffers the most is letting personal beliefs overrule health safety? Kids who don’t get their education? People exposed to unvaccinated children who just might have been exposed to measles? And who gets to tell these parents and children to stay home from school… or  … to come to school and risk exposing others to possible measles virus or being exposed to that virus… and carry that virus back into the world to spread it further.

In a world of evolving super-viruses and antibiotic-resistant super-bacteria, where government funding for necessary medical research is falling under the misplaced mantra of “fiscal prudence,” we are going to see a lot more of these issues. More people, kids especially, are going to be exposed to contagions, which can be contained with appropriate medical prevention. Do you think the local school districts should have the power to exclude unvaccinated students in times of medical outbreaks or are the underlying risks the price of living in a free society, even if a few more people die along the way?

I’m Peter Dekom, and what obligations does the government have to school children… perhaps even society in general… to contain those who pose health risks to the rest?