Vaccine-preventable diseases lurk in US
According to a new study, a number of states and metropolitan ‘hot spots’ in the US are at risk from vaccine-preventable diseases, due to parents opting out of vaccinating their children.
The study, The state of the antivaccine movement in the United States: A focused examination of nonmedical exemptions in states and counties, was published recently in the journal PLOS Medicine. It found that the states of Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah were all at risk from diseases such as measles that should have been widely phased out; unfortunately, the decision not to vaccinate children damages so-called ‘herd immunity’, and leads to such infections rearing their heads once again.
Dr Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and co-author of the study, described its findings as ‘a wake-up call’, while the study’s summary pointed out: “Our findings indicate that new foci of antivaccine activities are being established in major metropolitan areas, rendering select cities vulnerable for vaccination-preventable diseases. As noted by the recent experience in Anaheim, California, low vaccination rates resulted in a measles outbreak.”
Travellers heading to areas where such diseases are more prevalent are advised to check their own vaccination status, and keep abreast of health warnings posted by local authorities.