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Mother taking care of a girl with chicken pox. (iStock) (Mixmike / iStock)
Chickenpox has settled in a school in North Carolina, where many families claim a religious exemption from the vaccine.
Varicella cases have multiplied Asheville Waldorf School, which welcomes children from kindergarten to Grade 6 in Asheville, NB. About a dozen infections were brought to 28 at the beginning of the month. On Friday, there were 36, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.
The epidemic is among the worst in the state since the chickenpox vaccine has been available for more than 20 years. Since then, two-dose treatment has been successful in limiting the highly contagious disease that has already affected 90% of Americans – a breakthrough in public health.
The school is a symbol of the small but powerful movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of children under 2 who have not received any vaccine has quadrupled since 2001.
Like the Disneyland measles outbreak in 2015, this outbreak illustrates the real consequences of an obscure debate fueled by the science of junk food and fomented by the same type of robots and trolls on Twitter who spread misinformation during the 2016 presidential election. And that shows how an apparently marginal view can gain ground in a place like Asheville, a year-round trendy seaside resort nestled between Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains.
"The school meets the immunization requirements set by the state board of education, but also recognizes that a parent's decision to immunize his children occurs before they even enter school. school, "explained the school in a statement on public radio Blue Ridge.
Jennifer Mullendore, Medical Director of Buncombe County, Nova Scotia, was unequivocal: "We want to be clear: vaccination is the best protection against chickenpox."
"When we see a high number of unvaccinated children and adults, we know that a disease like chicken pox can easily spread throughout the community – in our playgrounds, our grocery stores and our sports teams, "she said in a press release.
But not all parents seemed to understand the seriousness of the epidemic. Not everyone sees the reason for being vaccines, which some believe – unlike scientific evidence – lead to health problems that are more serious than they are supposed to heal. The assertion of a risk of autism, even though it was discredited, remained a rallying cry of the anti-vaccine movement.
"What's the problem with chickenpox?" Amy Gordon, a city dweller, told Citizen-Times.
Chickenpox is serious, warns the CDC, "even life threatening, especially in babies, adolescents, adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems."
A person can spread the disease one to two days before the onset of the rash, which increases the risk of extensive transmission of the virus before its detection.
This was before the introduction of a two-dose vaccination program in the United States in 1995.
In the United States, the virus appeared every year in about 4 million cases, causing more than 10,000 hospitalizations and between 100 and 150 deaths. Children were particularly susceptible, as schools appeared to incubate the blister-like rash, appearing first on the stomach, back and face and could spread all over the surface of the body, creating up to 500 bulbs.
The vaccine, which according to the CDC is about 90% effective, has not eliminated the varicella zoster virus that causes chickenpox. But since the treatment is commercially available, it has reduced the number of cases as well as their severity. A 14-year prospective study published in Pediatrics in 2013 found that the incidence of infection was nine to 10 times lower than that of the pre-vaccine era.
However, the clearly documented merits of the vaccine remain unconvincing for some. Asheville Waldorf has one of the highest rates of religious immunization exemption in the state, according to data maintained by the Department of Health and Social Services.
The private school has a higher exemption rate for religious reasons than all other schools in North Carolina except two, reported the Citizen-Times. During the 2017-2018 school year, 19 of the 28 kindergarten children were exempted from at least one vaccine required by the state. Of the school's 152 students, 110 had not received the chickenpox vaccine, the newspaper reported.
North Carolina requires that all students in this state receive certain immunizations. Of the vaccines needed for kindergarten children, there are two doses for chickenpox, two for measles and two for mumps. Grade 7 students must again undergo vaccination.
But the state also allows exemptions on the advice of a doctor – as well as for religious reasons.
"If the true religious beliefs of an adult, a parent, a guardian or a person in loco parentis of a child are contrary to the vaccination requirements set out in this part, this adult or this child will be exempted ", according to the law in force. .
Recent efforts to tighten the rules have failed. In 2015, state legislators withdrew a bill that would have virtually eliminated the religious exemption after their efforts were violently protested. Protesters demonstrated in front of the State General Assembly in Raleigh, warning against "medical terrorism".
At the same time, the county medical director urged residents to vaccinate their children. "What happens when we run out of community immunity? Measles is what is happening, "said Mullendore this fall to the county commissioners, who had the highest rate of religious exemptions last year.
Frictions between medical experts and residents in care are not unique to Buncombe County, where parents of 5.7% of kindergarten children applied for religious exemption, or even to North Carolina, where this rate was 1.2%.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, forty-seven states allow religious exemptions for immunization. CDC data show that the median percentage of kindergarten children not receiving one or more required vaccines was highest in Oregon.
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