Unvaccinated children are banned from public space during the measles outbreak in suburban New York

Lindsey Bever, the Washington Post

published

12:52 PDT, Tuesday, March 26, 2019

A New York County has banned unvaccinated children from all public spaces, while the state is fighting its biggest measles outbreak for decades.

Rockland County officials declared a statewide emergency Tuesday, announcing that the ban would begin at midnight and remain in place for 30 days or until the Unvaccinated miners receive the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Officials said unvaccinated minors would not be allowed in public places, such as churches, schools and shopping malls, though outdoor spaces such as playgrounds are not included in the program. prohibition.

"We must not let this epidemic continue," said Ed Day, county executive, at a news conference. "We will not sit idly by while the children in our community are in danger."

This announcement comes as measles outbreaks have affected parts of California, Illinois, Texas and Washington, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In New York, more than 180 cases have been confirmed.

In Rockland County, about 40 miles from Manhattan, there have been more than 150 confirmed cases, according to county health officials.

More than 82 percent of measles patients had received no dose of MMR vaccine, health officials said. The data show that the largest number of cases – 46% – were observed in children aged 4 to 18 years, and 39% of them were younger than 3 years old.

Day, Rockland County, said the authorities would not look for unvaccinated children, but expect their parents and legal guardians to come forward and get their children vaccinated. However, he added, parents and guardians convicted of offenses will be held responsible and their case will be forwarded to the prosecutor's office. Such a violation will be considered an offense punishable by a fine of $ 500 or a maximum sentence of six months in prison.

Day said that children who can not be vaccinated for documented medical reasons are exempt.

"Rockland will pave the way for service and safety for the people here," he told reporters.

In the midst of worries over the growing measles epidemic, Rockland County tried something similar last year. As the Washington Post's Reis Thebault reports, public health officials have banned unvaccinated children from going to school with a vaccination rate of less than 95%.

He added:

A few months later, parents of more than 40 children banned from the Green Meadow Waldorf School sued the Rockland County Health Department, asking a federal judge to allow students to return to class. This week, US District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti rejected their request, saying it was not in the "public interest" to allow children to return to school.

"Although no one likes the fact that these kids left school, these prescriptions worked," said county attorney Thomas Humbach in a statement in the local newspaper. "They helped prevent the measles outbreak from spreading to this school population."

Measles is a highly contagious virus and can have serious consequences – pneumonia, brain damage, loss of hearing and even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963, most children contracted the disease, accounting for between 3 and 4 million patients each year in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of these, 48,000 were hospitalized, 400 to 500 died and another 1,000 suffered a serious complication called encephalitis, a condition in which the brain swells due to an infection.

In 2000, nearly four decades after parents began vaccinating their children, measles was declared eliminated in the United States.

Data from the CDC show that between 2000 and 2018, there was an average of 140 measles cases per year in the United States. Three people died during this period: one in 2002, one in 2003 and one in 2015.