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Orthodox Jewish Haredi girls walk past a school bus in Borough Park, Brooklyn, on January 1, 2014. (Nati Shohat / Flash 90)
(JTA) – The New York City Department of Health is warning of a measles outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and urging parents to vaccinate their children.
The department said Friday that there were 11 new cases of measles in the Orthodox enclave, bringing to 17 the number of newly diagnosed children with measles in Williamsburg and Borough Park.
Three infections, including the first case of measles, were contracted by children during a visit to Israel, said the department, where a major outbreak of the disease is taking place.
"There has also been a transmission to schools with unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children," the department said in a statement.
Health officials and community groups reported relatively low vaccination rates in Orthodox neighborhoods. Some people misunderstand that fiercely religious Jews are protected from infection by the relatively isolated nature of their communities, supplemented by rumors, unfounded according to public health officials, about the dangers of vaccination.
To address this, the city's health department has engaged community figures to encourage immunization against measles, mumps and rubella, including Rabbi David Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations in Williamsburg and Brooklyn, and Rabbi Avi Greenstein, Executive Director of the Boro Park Jewish Community Council.
"It says in the Vnishmartem Meod The nafshoseichem of the Torah, that a person must protect his health," said Niederman in a press release from the Ministry of Health. "The need for parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated, especially against measles, is clearly established."
The health department works with local health care providers, religious schools and Orthodox newspapers to publicize vaccines.
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