shot-immunization.jpg
Washington state is among the most vulnerable for the outbreak of infectious diseases due to the high number of parents who choose not to let their children be immunized, according to health officials. (AP Photo/file)

Washington communities at risk of measles outbreak

BY Brandi Kruse  on March 20, 2012 @ 10:25 pm (Updated: 10:22 am - 3/21/12 )

Washington state is among the most vulnerable for the outbreak of infectious disease due to the high number of parents who choose not to let their children be immunized, according to health officials.

According to figures from the Washington State Department of Health, roughly six percent of kindergarteners statewide last year did not receive at least one of their required immunizations because their parents opted out.

"That's very high," said Michele Roberts, health communication manager for the state's Office of Immunization. "The year before that, we were at 6.2 percent, which that year was the highest in the nation. Most states have rates less than three percent."

In Washington state, children can receive immunization exemptions for one of three reasons: religious, philosophical, or medical.

The percentage of exemptions vary greatly by county. For the 2010-2011 school year, just 1.9 percent of students K-12 in Franklin County were exempt from immunizations. During the same school year in Ferry County, 25.4 percent of students K-12 opted out.

Roberts said it is those communities with high rates of exemptions that are most at risk for the outbreak of infectious diseases such as the measles.

"Often these kids live in the same areas and go to the same schools, so we have pockets in our state that are really at risk," Roberts said. "I think that's why we see outbreaks happen in communities [...] parents are seeking advice from their peers about immunizations."

Other at-risk communities, said Roberts, include areas in Olympia, Snohomish, Whatcom County, San Juan County and Vashon Island, among others.

While there are similar pockets with dangerously low immunization rates nationwide, a recent Wall Street Journal article points out that overall vaccination rates are on the rise.

"Overall, more parents in the U.S. are getting their children vaccinated than in recent years, when concerns about immunization prompted some to opt out," according to the March 20 article. "Rates of vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella, considered a bellwether for U.S. rates, ticked up to 91.5 percent in 2010 from 90 percent in 2009, according to the CDC."

But the article warns of a "growing" concern over concentrated areas with immunization rates "far below the threshold that is needed to prevent an outbreak for certain diseases."

Health officials here in Washington are hopeful, however, that a new law governing immunizations will decrease the number of parents who decide to opt their children out.

The bill, signed into law in May 2011, requires parents receive a Certificate of Exemption from a licensed health care provider before their child is allowed to opt out of immunization requirements. The certificate verifies that parents received information about the risks and benefits of immunizations prior to making a decision. The bill has applied to all parents seeking exemptions after the law went onto effect on July 22, 2011.

"The old law made it very easy to opt out, all it took was a parent's signature," Roberts said. "We definitely expect the new law will cause a drop in the number of exemptions, but it may take a couple of years to see that."

Brandi Kruse, KIRO Radio Reporter
Brandi Kruse is a reporter for KIRO Radio who is as spontaneous and adventurous in her free time as she is on the job. Brandi arrived at KIRO Radio in March 2011 and has already collected three regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her reporting.
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Comments (40)


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  • SickofSeattleite wrote...
    it should only take a parents signature to opt out
    March 21, 2012 5:39 am
    as they are the parent and should be making those decisions. The required vaccine list seems to get longer every year. Last time I checked children didn't die easily from chicken pox, yet there is a required vaccine for it? Not to mention my doctor trying to get my 9 year old a vaccine for a sexually contracted HPV infection...Um, she's 9.
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  • Drool wrote...
    @SickofSeattleite
    March 21, 2012 7:35 am
    Geniuses like you are the reason we have mandatory vaccination. Are you aware of the danger of chicken pox in adults and the resultant adult shingles that comes with childhood chicken pox infection?

    Regarding HPV, I presume that like you she will only ever have one sexual partner in her life and that person will have been a virgin too. If that's the case go ahead and don't vaccinate her

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  • MainEvent wrote...
    I say.......
    March 21, 2012 5:53 am
    we let them make the choice so they can go live in their rural uneducated pockets and all die off cause they didn't get immunized. Darwinism at work!
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  • mch-pevo@comcast.net wrote...
    Our kids live...
    March 21, 2012 7:51 am
    while you neanderthal, hedonists abort your children, and tell US to conform to your self-destructive behaviors!
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    doctor knows best ?
    March 21, 2012 5:56 am
    doctors and other health care professionals are not gods, but on this one, most cave got it right. Discovering the value of vaccines is not something new - Pasture was LATE 19TH CENTURY. ...........And before you all start on this as liberal vs conservative, there are plenty throughout the political spectrum who fear vaccination. .......... Religious objections are about the only allowable exemptions. ... OK - children do not die 'easily' from chicken pox, but SOME DO, and measles will kill many thousands this year world wide, especially in areas where vaccines are not available. ..... And do you really WANT your kid to BE one who dies ???
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  • happyjohnnyboy wrote...
    How many vaccines do children receive?
    March 21, 2012 6:28 am
    21 vaccines before the age of six, and generally 6 more before the age of 18, for a total of 27 in childhood. Some vaccines are given multiple times (for example, the DTaP - diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis - is given 5 times).
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  • JadeFrog wrote...
    Compromise
    March 21, 2012 6:52 am
    Allow for a simple parent signature to opt your kid out. However, if your kid is later shown to be a vector of transmission which results in sickness or death, you are held financially and criminally responsible. Sound fair?
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  • circuitfr wrote...
    jadeFrog
    March 21, 2012 7:17 am
    So we should hold you accountable as well if you give an elderly person a common cold from which she contracts pneumonia and dies? What transmission? When your baby is born, they smear crap in their eye for STD's, They immediately give a Hep B shot for STD's....sorry, my wife and I were didn't sleep around like jack rabbits, we don't have any STD's, and I'm not going to get my kid shot up 2 minutes after birth. The immune system is NOT able to handle that. Do you know what caused the massive decline in most of these diseases? Sanitation. All the vaccines that we get for the diseases were in massive decline BEFORE vaccines due to simple sanitation advances. At any rate, I don't argue some vaccines are good. I evaluate each one. We gave our kids MMR, among others. But Hep B, Chicken Pox, Pertussis, and Flu shots are among some we don't. Just look around at your workplace. All my friends who were kept in a bubble in life get sick every single month. Kids who actually got a little dirty and weren't kept in a bubble as to never getting sick have far better immune systems....
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  • circuitfr wrote...
    and finally
    March 21, 2012 7:21 am
    I find it funny how study after study shows "no link" between autoimmune disease and vaccines, but even I can make simple coorelation. They keep upping the vaccines every year and our autoimmune diseases are going through the roof. Other countries haved banned vaccines that we still give and have lower autoimmune diseases. Unfortunetely, like much health care in todays world, follow the money. When the government goes out and forces a new certain vaccine, like Gardasil is being pushed, the company who makes it gets RECORD profits. So, you'll excuse my horror and dismay when they tell you that you're a horrible parent and your kids going to die and that it's sound science and "for the kids" when the company LOBBIED CONGRESS for the vaccine to become mandatory and stands to make millions and millions and millions of dollars.... Yup, I'm sure it's "for the kids"
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  • Drool wrote...
    "but even I can make simple coorelation. "
    March 21, 2012 7:40 am
    Please tell us the scientific data that makes this correlation...or are you just using hysteria from the anti vaccination crowd.

    BTW, small pox is gone and polio is nearly gone due to VACCINATIONS.

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  • Nerveguy wrote...
    Is it because of mass vaccination?
    March 21, 2012 8:07 am
    Are you sure it's not just better sanitation??
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  • AboutPediatrics wrote...
    Vaccines Work
    March 22, 2012 8:55 am
    "Do you know what caused the massive decline in most of these diseases? Sanitation." This statement, which is commonly used by anti-vaccine activists, is blatantly untrue. If it were true, then why did so many vaccine-preventable diseases decline so rapidly at different times? For example: *measles decreased 98% after the measles vaccine was licensed in 1963 *polio decreased after the inactivated polio vaccine was licensed in 1955 *diphtheria decreased with the widespread use of that vaccine in the 1940s *and of course smallpox was gone well before all of these, with the last case in the US being reported in 1949
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  • FormerMarineSgt wrote...
    I cannot believe the number of anti-science hysterical parents put thier children at risk!
    March 21, 2012 7:19 am
    It blows me away at the number of people who claim to be intelligent people go off on this anti-science fear based campaign against vaccines. Why should your children get a chicken pox vaccine? BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE DO DIE FROM EXPOSURE TO CHICKEN POX. Why should your 9 year old daughter get the HPV Vaccine? BECAUSE AS A PARENT YOU DON'T WANT HER TO GET CERVICAL CANCER AND DIE WHEN SHE GETS OLDER. The 'no vaccine' rational is completely irrational. HPV - yeah, a 9 year old isn't sexually active, and hopefully she isn't until after she's married - so why not get her protected WELL BEFORE she would even make a connection between this vaccine and sex? It's pathetic what people will do to rationalize thier own fears and paranoia instead of thinking with a level head.
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  • Nerveguy wrote...
    People die from the vaccines too
    March 21, 2012 8:10 am
    Let's trade mild childhood diseases (yes most often they are mild) for lifelong illness, cancer, increased asthma (which people die from too) and auto-immune disorders. Open your eyes. If YOU are vaccinated you don't have to worry right? How about living a healthier lifestyle to minimize risk?
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    more cancer
    March 21, 2012 8:28 am
    Yup, I guess immunization DOES result in more cancer deaths - more people are now living long enough to GET cancer. .........Pray tell, except for a mistaken use of (too)live polio vaccine in the early 1950's, who and how are people dying FROM vaccines ?
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  • circuitfr wrote...
    FormerMarineSgt
    March 21, 2012 9:31 am
    People do die from vaccines..That is a fact. VAERS reporting from the government. There are valid cases of people having adverse reactions to vaccines and dying. Go tell that same paragraph to a parent whos kid died because of a vaccine? Tell the, "oh well, it was for the greater good" I would rather make a rational decision about the likelyhood of my kid dying from Chicken Pox than CHOOSING to inject them with something. Both risks are slight, but I couldn't live with myself If my decision to inject my child was the reason they died. I had CONTROL over that decision. So if I have a .000001 chance of my kid dying from a vaccine and a .00001 chance of my kid dying from Chicken Pox if he didn't get the vaccine...I would take my chances and not shoot him up.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    bet the odds
    March 21, 2012 10:09 am
    But, what if it is .ooooo1% from the vaccine vs .01% from chicken pox (that is still only i in 10,000) ? People DO have bad reactions to some vaccines. I react badly to tetanus vaccine and I know that - although it would not kill me. ......But to reject vaccines simply out of fear or hear-say ? ........ This IS 2012. Pre-testing IS possible and should be done - especially with some mass immunizations. But rejection should be based on the KNOWN dangers.
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  • mch-pevo@comcast.net wrote...
    NO SUCH THING AS...
    March 21, 2012 7:47 am
    IMMUNIZATION! Never has been, never will be! Why would anyone want to defile their beautiful little babies and children with the disgustingly foul, toxic and many times deadly brew of "attenuated" viruses that they make so-called "vaccinations" out of? I Australia, only 1/2 of the population has ever been vaccinated and their government has studied this very carefully. There is no greater incidence of disease among the un-vaccinated than there is among the so-called "vaccinated". And we have a great and recent event from l Lake Sammamish highschool. A few years ago, there was a huge measles outbreak at Lake Samm. The un-vaccinated were blamed for the outbreak, but if the rest of the kids were vaccinated, why did so many of them come down with the disease? And it didn't even start among the un-vaccinated kids. It was just blamed on them. I'm so glad that we chose not to play Russian roulette with our children's lives. Inform yourselves and fight the system! The government is not acting in your best interest. They are acting in their own best interest, where it's better for them if we all conform complacently and follow them like sheep. "I mean for heaven's sake, can't we all just get along?" LOL!
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  • cobradvm wrote...
    @ mch-pevo
    March 21, 2012 8:02 am
    Two minutes on google will show you that over 90% of Australian kids are being fully vaccinated. Also the biggest Russian Roulette you are playing is by not vaccinating your kids. Are you just hoping that your kids won't contract a serious childhood virus? Just like a Russian Roulette player hopes the chamber is empty?
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  • Drool wrote...
    @mch-pevo
    March 21, 2012 5:17 pm
    Ever seen the result of one of those beautiful babies getting polio? I know one.
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  • Nerveguy wrote...
    http://www.nvic.org/
    March 21, 2012 8:12 am
    A resource for you....
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  • Nerveguy wrote...
    Interesting Study
    March 21, 2012 8:18 am
    There are studies that "prove" each side. The thing to keep in mind is WHERE the research is coming from. Is it from a company that makes billions off vaccines or is it from researchers searching for the truth? http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/10/14/big-study-vaccinated-kids-2-5-more-diseases-than-unvaccinated/
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  • Nerveguy wrote...
    List of "uneducated" "non scientific" Drs and Scientists opposed to vaccination
    March 21, 2012 8:23 am
    Check out this list of so called uneducated doctors who SEE the truth about vaccines. http://www.naturalnews.com/SpecialReports/VaccinesFullStory/v1/VaccineReport-EN.pdf
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