Dc Needs to Learn from California’s Measles Outbreak and Enforce School Entry Vaccination Requirements

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Subject: DC needs to learn from California’s Measles Outbreak and Enforce School Entry Vaccination Requirements

If the District of Columbia does not want to be the next city that causes a new measles outbreak or be responsible for increasing the spread of the current outbreak, DC Public Schools, needs to enforce the law and not allow unvaccinated children to attend school unless they have valid exemptions.

“States and local vaccination requirements for school entry are implemented to maintain high vaccination coverage and protect schoolchildren from vaccine-preventable diseases” (according to the CDC’s October 17, 2014 MMWR Report, “Vaccination Coverage Among Children in Kindergarten — United States, 2013–14 School Year”). According to the District of Columbia Public Schools website, DC requires school children to be vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, mumps, measles, rubella, polio, Haemophilus influenza type (Hib), hepatitis B and varicella for school attendance unless there is a medical or religious exemption. DC public schools also require a Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for students in grades 6-10 unless parents opt-out.ii The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine provides protection from measles.

In comparison, California allows for philosophical objections in addition to medical and religious exemptions. There are a number of citizens in California that have vaccine hesitancy and tend to cluster together in communities because of their anti-vaccine beliefs. The news has been covering an outbreak of measles that started in December 2014. The outbreak has been linked to 40 people who were visitors or employees of Disneyland in Anaheim, California (Orange County), according to the California Department of Public Health’s website on Health Information. The Washington Post reported, as of February 9, 2015, the outbreak has spread to 18...