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Colorado public health officials have been on high alert for weeks. They are nervously watching to see if the only confirmed case of measles in Denver on Jan. 15 will cause an outbreak.
This is not an easy task. Thanks to state laws that allow parents to opt out of vaccination – well, just because – 1955 is once again in many Colorado communities.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before the vaccine became available in the 1960s, 3 to 4 million people were infected with measles each year in the United States, and 400 to 500 died. An estimated 48,000 hospitalizations and 1,000 encephalitis.
Colorado ranks 50th Stephanie Wbaderman, Executive Director of the Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition, says Stephanie Wbaderman, Executive Director of the Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition.
Although the Legislative Assembly has done little to remedy this situation, it has at least pbaded legislation in 2014 requiring schools to report vaccination rates. The data obtained is enlightening, especially if you are the parent of a particularly vulnerable child who can not be vaccinated for medical reasons.
The vaccination rates of state charter schools are among the lowest in the world, according to the state of state immunizations, a report gathering data from the 2016-2017 school year.
LILY: Columnists of opinion Colorado Sun.
The Crestone Charter School in the Moffat 2 School District reported an outrageous vaccination rate of 29.48%.
In the Boulder anti-vaxxer hotspot, only 41.60% of students at Gold Hill Elementary School were fully immunized.
In Clark County, Washington, with a vaccination rate of only 78%, at least 36 people have recently contracted measles and are at risk for encephalitis, pneumonia and other potentially life-threatening complications .
In New York, more than 120 cases of measles have been reported in the current outbreak.
And remember, the disease is entirely preventable.
In the time before the anti-vaxxer movement, measles was considered eradicated in the United States. In 2000, when vaccination rates were common and collective immunity was reached, no cases were reported.
It was the era before social media. It was before the calculated misinformation was militarized.
Now, even Russian robots have been mobilized to spread lies about the risks of vaccination, apparently in order to divide Americans, undermine confidence in the public health system and the government in general, and sow chaos and fear .
So while the people of Africa and Asia travel miles to access life-saving vaccines, many Americans refuse to immunize their children, even when vaccines are convenient and free. .
Then, as measles epidemics multiply, the leaders of the anti-vaxxer movement tell their supporters to avoid staying with other unvaccinated people in order to reduce the risk of illness and to "hide" in the herd "among the vaccinated unharmed.
How cynical is it?
Nevertheless, while this is an interesting debate on the broader issue of vaccination rates and state laws, the most important concern at the moment is our level of risk.
The Denverian adult who apparently contracted measles abroad was circulating a lot in the city, visiting a spa, a supermarket, an emergency clinic and a hospital before being diagnosed.
Wbaderman said dozens of people had been exposed to the latest case, with the measles virus living for two hours in a room where an infected person was found. For infants under one year of age, people on chemotherapy and those who can not be vaccinated for medical reasons, the danger is real.
At the same time, many health professionals have had to re-familiarize themselves with the signs of measles, the explosion of the resurgent past.
The first symptoms are fever, runny nose, red eyes, cough, all similar to those of colds and flu. Thus, unless there is good reason to suspect measles, cases are often misdiagnosed before the rash develops.
This gives the virus enough time to spread and to advance its complications.
These complications are not only life threatening, they are very expensive.
"That's what makes legislators stand up and listen," Wbaderman said. "They are very cost conscious."
She said that in 2017, hospital costs and emergency services for children with vaccine-preventable diseases in Colorado amounted to $ 55 million. This figure does not include office visits, medications or lost wages of parents who had to stay home after work to care for sick children.
That year, 558 children were hospitalized and three died from these preventable diseases.
"Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet," Wbaderman said.
We had a social contract for vaccines, she added. Our responsible behavior has eliminated smallpox and put an end to the plague of crippling polio epidemics.
He has almost eradicated measles.
Then everything fell apart.
Diane Carman is a communications consultant in Denver. @Dccarman
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