How Pierce County can stave off measles

The measles outbreak in Clark County has sickened 65 people, mostly unvaccinated and mostly children. It started with one case but grew quickly as those who were exposed at school, church, stores and recreational facilities became ill.

The cost of this outbreak has reached $1 million and is rising.

While Pierce County has not seen any cases related to the outbreak, we remain vulnerable unless we close dangerous gaps in MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination rates among school children.

Common sense health policies like House Bill 1638 and Senate Bill 5841 address dangerous gaps in immunization rates. These proposals would eliminate the personal or philosophical exemption that some parents now claim to avoid vaccinations required for their kids to be enrolled in school or a licensed day care.

We can protect those with weakened immune systems or those who cannot get the vaccine because of medical reasons – and prevent outbreaks – if 95 percent of our community is immune.

In Pierce County, unfortunately, only two of 15 school districts meet the 95-percent MMR vaccination threshold among kindergartners. (See your school district’s information at www.tpchd.org/immunizationrates.)

Measles is extremely contagious and can cause complications like diarrhea, dehydration, ear infections, pneumonia and permanent brain damage. About 20 percent of people with measles will be hospitalized. In 2017, 110,000 people died from measles worldwide.

Infected people might not have symptoms for up to five days. During this time, they can spread the virus – even in the absence of person-to-person contact – making the disease especially hard to contain.

Since it is so contagious, those exposed must stay home for 21 days and cannot go to school or work or do their usual activities. (Learn more at www.tpchd.org/measles.)

We know parents want the best for their children. As parents ourselves, we make those same decisions about our children’s health, education and wellbeing.

And as doctors, we have committed our lives to take care of and help people. We strive to get the best information, so we can do the best thing for our patients.

We cannot speculate on the motivations of those who spread misinformation, but we see patterns. They have exploited the internet and taken advantage of Facebook and other social media algorithms.

Some articles and well-known people still refer to a debunked study linking MMR vaccination with autism. The journal Lancet retracted Andrew Wakefield’s article, and he lost his medical license because of ethical and scientific misconduct.

Social media outlets are beginning to take steps to reverse the damage. Pinterest has restricted antivax search results and YouTube has pulled ads from videos that promote conspiracy theories.

But as a leading pediatrician has said, “It’s very easy to scare people; it’s very hard to unscare them.”

Fortunately, we can solve this together. We need to preserve the quality of life and freedom we have come to expect. We should be able to live, work, learn and play without fear of getting infected by serious but preventable diseases.

Everyone should have the same opportunity to live a healthy, long life.

We can help people learn facts about vaccine safety and efficacy, and disregard wrong information.

We can achieve the needed 95-percent level of community immunity. Washington supports free vaccines for all children, regardless of insurance coverage. In this outbreak we have seen a jump in unvaccinated people asking to be vaccinated.

Prioritizing funds for foundational public health services will also help prevent and control future outbreaks.

Working together, we can solve this challenge.