Measles cases in the northwestern United States provide an overview of vaccine exemptions



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VANCOUVER, Washington – A measles epidemic near Portland, Oregon has revived a heated debate over so-called exemptions from personal beliefs about child immunization.

At least 43 people in Washington and Oregon have become ill in recent weeks with the highly contagious virus.

More than a dozen more cases are suspected and people exposed to the disease traveled to Hawaii and Bend, Oregon.

This raises the possibility of increasing the number of cases among the unvaccinated.

Washington state legislators now want to remove a provision that allows parents not to use vaccines for personal or philosophical reasons.

Four percent of high school students in Washington benefit from a non-medical vaccine exemption.

In Oregon, where a similar law was pbaded, 7.5% of kindergarten children in 2018 were shot and wounded for non-medical reasons.

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