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Super Bowl Measles Outbreak Update: 13 People Admit They Weren't Vaccinated
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 24, 2012
Modified Feb 24, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 24, 2012
Modified Feb 24, 2012
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Remember how New York health officials were contacted because of a measles outbreak in Indiana last month—and one of the infected individuals had gone to Super Bowl Village festivities before the big game? Well, now you can mull on this factoid: Most of the people afflicted admitted they were never vaccinated.
PBS NewsHour reports that Indiana health commissioner Dr. Gregory Larkin said 13 cases (there are 14 reported) were "confined to families in the same social group.... According to Larkin, [they] had all chosen not to be vaccinated." Larkin said, "This is just so highly infectious and so significantly preventable."
The Washington Post's parenting blog notes:
The most disturbing element of the mini outbreak is the potential for might have been. Measles has an incubation period of more than a week, so hundreds of thousands of fans might have been exposed... In fact, the reason there was an outbreak at all was apparently because of the small but persistent group of people who refuse to vaccinate their children....
The latest figures from the journal Pediatrics show that as many as ten percent of parents do not follow vaccination guidelines. That’s lead to outbreaks of both measles and pertussis, also known as whooping cough, across the country. Last year, for instance, California saw a major outbreak of whooping cough. Virginia, also last year, saw a rash of whooping cough cases that officials linked to several students, from one private school, who had not been vaccinated.
From a public health perspective, the decision to decline vaccinations is more than an individual choice. It’s one that’s dangerous for the child and the greater general public, especially the most vulnerable populations, such as younger children who are not yet old enough for vaccinations.
The study that prompted the anti-vaccine movement because of a claimed link to autism was retracted. Here's the NYC Health Department's website about measles.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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