globalnews.ca
>Clark County, Washington, has seen over 50 cases of Measles since January — and 47 of those cases occurred to individuals who were unvaccinated. One case occurred even though the person had the MMR vaccine, and the rest could not be verified, according to Clark County officials.
>Despite this, nearly seven per cent of children in Clark County were exempt from the vaccines required for kindergarten in the 2017-18 school year for “personal or religious” reasons, the Washington Post reported. (Another 1.2 per cent were exempt from the requirement for medical reasons.)
>But since the outbreak was declared an emergency, Washington state health officials saw a dramatic increase in the number of vaccines administered. During the first week of January, only 117 vaccines containing measles were administered to children under 18 years old in Clark County. But by the last week of January, more than 1,000 vaccines were administered.
>Compared to the average of the previous four years in the same time period, that’s nearly a 500 per cent spike.
>For adults, the spike is even more dramatic: only 17 vaccines were administered during the first week of January, but during the fourth week in 2018, that number grew to 40 times the previous average — over 800 vaccines were administered.
>“An increase in vaccinations means more people are protected from serious illnesses,” Washington Department of Health spokesperson Julie Graham told Global News. “This is always good news.”
>“However, the fact that vaccine-preventable diseases like measles are able to spark an outbreak like this shows us more people need to be vaccinated.”
>Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that can cause hearing loss and brain disorders in children, and in severe cases, can kill.
