By Andrea Pettes
March 11, 2009
ASHLAND, Ore. -- Ashland has the highest rate of vaccination exemptions in Jackson County.
Over 28 percent of Ashland kindergarteners show up to school without shots, compared to a state average of 3.7 percent.
Of the approximately 30,000 students who attend school in Jackson County, more than 1,600 of them are not fully immunized, according to county records.
"In the state of Oregon, you can have a religious or philosophical exemption, and a lot of the key things came out, where there is a lot of distrust with students and the government," says Ashland School District Nurse Coordinator Belinda Brown.
Brown says immunizations and exemptions have always been a hot button issue in Ashland. She says knowing that nearly a third of the district's students aren't vaccinated is cause for concern in the event of a massive outbreak.
In February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a trip to Ashland to discuss the problems, fears, and issues of immunizations.
"We are concerned, and have been every time data comes out to show we are at the losing end of this, and our concern is greater," says Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Jim Shames.
Each year, Ashland's numbers climb higher. Health experts say it could carry serious health implications for the community.
"Ashland is at risk of spreading infectious diseases. Some are really quite serious," says Shames.
However, those concerns seem minor to parents who fear those same shots that are supposed to protect may cause harm.
"It's a risk either way, so it's up to the parent to live with the fact they choose not to immunize their child. How would you feel if you had an adverse reaction to immunization and your child got sick?" says Meryl Bacon, mother to four-month old Lila who isn't immunized.
While the numbers show a large population isn't immunized, that isn't necessarily the entire picture. There are many kids who are partially immunized that still fill out a religious or philosophical exemption form.
According to state law, if you don't have all of the required shots, then your child is listed as exempt. While there is no data on what shots are not given to each child, schools treat a child without the pertussis vaccine the same as they would one without measles, mumps and rubella.
"It's not a true picture of what's going on," says Brown.
Shames says it should be more of a big picture decision.
"The fact that you are not just vaccinating for your child, but the entire community," says Shames... "As long as those diseases exist in the world, they will come back to our communities and we will see them and we will deal with diphtheria, polio, measles and other bad illnesses," says Shames.
Comments
Please note; The sentence
Please note; The sentence "Just recently the CDC was able to determine that the correlation between vaccinations and autism is completely unrelated" is not a correct use of the term "correlation". A correlation cannot be completely unrelated. The sentence should read, "Just recently, the CDC determined that there is no proven correlation between vaccinations and autism."
Readers should also note that this determination was made after reviewing years of scientific studies none of which were able to demonstrate a relationship between receiving vaccinations for childhood diseases and being diagnosed with autism or a similar diagnosis on the autism spectrum. In fact, many scientific researchers are expressing frustration with spending time and resources on continuing to investigate this theory when the resources could be better spent investigating other possible causes of autism and effective treatment.
On the other hand, it is well documented in the medical literature that there are many handicapping conditions, including mental retardation and hearing loss, that frequently develop as complications from typical childhood diseases which your child can be protected from by vaccination. In addition, pregnant women exposed to certain childhood diseases
are at high risk to develop complications in their pregnancies or deliver a baby with a handicapping condition.
What changed my mind about this issue was visiting countries where the majority of children are not vaccinated and observing the high number handicapped children--children who would
have developed normally and be able to live without a disability--had their community been protected by vaccinations.
why worry?
They may have lower immunization rates, but are there any outbreaks?
It seems almost as silly as worrying about the avian flu. Just a few years ago, head of CDC was quoted as saying “There is no evidence [avian flu] will be the next pandemic. There is no evidence it is evolving in a direction that is becoming more transmissible to people.” Yet we poured money into preparing for this non-existant pandemic.
Point being, outbreaks aren't happening in Ashland, so why pour unnecessary worry into this in an effort to make more people vaccinate? It seems they don't need those extra vaccinations. And honestly, I'm not surprised that they don't need the extra vaccinations - when I grew up, we had something like 4 vaccinations. Less for my parents, and they're still around.