PERTUSSIS CASE, STATISTICS HIGHLIGHT IMPORTANCE OF VACCINATION

A recent case of pertussis, or whooping cough, diagnosed in a local child has prompted the Clatsop County Public Health Department to stress the importance of immunization.

The case, discovered last week, involved a school-age child who was not immunized against the illness because the parents received an exemption under Oregon law governing childhood vaccinations.

Figures released earlier this month by the Oregon Public Health Division show that a small but growing number of families in Oregon are refusing immunization for their children under the state’s religious exemption rule: a source of concern to public health experts who say the illnesses that vaccines prevent pose a real threat to the public’s health.

“Public health is everybody’s business,” Clatsop County Public Health Director Margo Lalich said. “Preventing the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases by vaccinating our children is one very effective to ensure the health of our children and the community.”

The state health statistics show that the number of kindergartners in Oregon not vaccinated due to religious exemption totaled 5.6 percent: up from 2.4 percent 10 years ago. The figure for Clatsop County was 6 percent.

Children are required to be immunized against a range of diseases in order to attend school, but Oregon has one of the most lenient laws governing vaccination refusal, allowing parents to claim religious exemption for any “belief, practice or ethical value.”

The rise in the number of non-immunized children has been mirrored by growing incidences of vaccine-preventable illnesses such as measles and pertussis, both in Oregon and nationwide.

Once a common and often fatal illness among children, pertussis rates fell dramatically in the United States after the 1940s, thanks largely to widespread immunization. In the past several years, however, there has been a resurgence of the disease ? in Oregon, 282 cases were reported in 2010, 13 of which required hospitalization, according to the state health division. Earlier this year several pertussis cases were reported at an elementary school in Clatsop County.

Called whooping cough because of the deep, prolonged coughing fits the illness causes, pertussis can be fatal to infants up to 12 months old, and also poses a risk to pregnant women, who can pass it on to their unborn children. Adults who contract the illness can develop pneumonia and require hospitalization.

The pertussis vaccine is typically given to infants or young children as part of the combined diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DtaP) vaccine, and as a booster shot to adolescents.

In the most recent local case, the Clatsop County Public Health Department tested the child’s relatives and determined they were not infected, and notified school officials in the neighboring county where the child attended school. The child did not require hospitalization.

The department stresses that childhood vaccines for pertussis, measles, chicken pox and other illnesses are proven safe and effective. But immunization is only truly effective when at least 95 percent of the population is covered. This “herd immunity” prevents individual cases from spreading and potentially reaching those who may be particularly vulnerable, including children who can’t be immunized because of age or medical condition.



FACTS
· Side effects of vaccines, in the rare cases when they do occur, typically involve only soreness and rashes. Numerous scientific studies have found NO link between vaccines and autism.

· Vaccine-targeted illnesses are potentially dangerous. Chicken pox can cause pneumonia, rubella can cause birth defects, and children can die from any vaccine-preventable disease. And a child with only mild symptoms of a disease can still pass it on to someone much more vulnerable, such as an infant or person with a weakened immune system.

· Mercury was banned from childhood vaccines in 2001.

· Outbreaks of contagious diseases, even among one person, can tax the resources of local health departments, which are required under law not only to test the infected patient but also to investigate people with whom that person may have been in contact.

To find out more, go to www.healthoregon.org.

For more information on receiving immunizations, talk to your primary care provider or call the Clatsop County Public Health Department at (503) 325-8500.

The federal Vaccine For Children program provides assistance for families for whom cost may be a barrier to receiving immunization. To find out about eligibility for the program, contact the Public Health Department.