Measle outbreaks: More parents are skipping vaccinations and risking disease because shots might make kids ‘uncomfortable’

The American Academy of Pediatrics says vaccination policies in the U.S. need a shot in the arm.

“High immunization rates are critical to keeping disease outbreaks at bay,” said AAP President Dr. Benard P. Dreyer in a the new report published in the journal Pediatrics. “No child should have to suffer through a disease that could have been prevented by a vaccine.”

And yet, some are.

The paper cites a January 2015 measles outbreak in California, where 3% of kindergartners were allowed a non-medical exemption from the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine — and the unimmunized children got the measles. That puts vulnerable people such as children too young to be vaccinated, or those who can’t be because of medical problems, at risk for catching these diseases.

Yet 87% of pediatricians have seen parents who refused to inoculate their kids in 2013, up from 75% in 2006. And the parents delaying or skipping the shots weren’t as worried about autism risk as they used to be. Instead, most parents who refuse do so because they say vaccines cause “discomfort and immune system burden” to their kids, others believe vaccines are no longer necessary.

The AAP argues that couldn’t be further from the truth. Routine childhood immunization prevents about 42,000 early deaths and 20 million cases of disease in the U.S., saving $13.5 billion in direct costs, and a whopping $68.8 billion in societal costs.

 

Measle outbreaks have popped up where kids weren’t vaccinated.

(John Heseltine/Getty Images)

“People today may not remember that before vaccines, diseases like whooping cough, measles, polio, meningitis, and diphtheria sickened and claimed the lives of thousands of children and adults each year in the United States,” said AAP member Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards. “Serious disease can occur if your child and family are not vaccinated.”

And allowing non-medical exemptions such as personal beliefs get kids out of their vaccine requirements for school and day care has endangered whole communities.

“It’s clear that states with more lenient exemptions policies have lower immunization rates, and it’s these states where we have seen disease outbreaks occur as the rates slip below the threshold needed to maintain community immunity,” said Geoffrey R. Simon, lead author of the new policy statement.

The AAP urges state governments to enforce policies that will push more parents to get their kids vaccinated. It is also recommending that public health authorities release the immunization rate data for individual schools and communities, so parents can determine their kids’ safety in those settings.

And it wants pediatricians to have more “compassionate dialogues” with parents to clear up misconceptions around vaccines, and to provide accurate information about the safety and importance of vaccines.