Sunday, August 26, 2012

Widespread vaccine exemptions are messing with herd immunity

Widespread vaccine exemptions are messing with herd immunity:

Vaccines have been one of the most important public health interventions ever developed. As a new study notes, past analyses have estimated that the childhood immunization schedule prevents 42,000 deaths and 20 million cases of disease—and that's only for the kids born in a single year. The estimated savings is currently at $14 billion a year.
But, despite the amazing benefits, immunization rates have been falling, driven by a fear that vaccines cause health problems such as autism. The autism risk has been both thoroughly debunked and the paper that originally suggested it turned out to be the product of an unethical, financially motivated individual. Despite this debunking, surveys show that a quarter of US parents think that vaccines can trigger autism, and rates of vaccination have continued to fall in many states. A new study looks at incoming kindergartners in California, and finds that the lack of vaccination is threatening herd immunity in some schools, and that some measures of risk have doubled in just three years.
California, like other states, has a mandatory immunization schedule, set as a requirement for children entering school. But California is also one of 20 states that allows a personal belief exemption, where parents can file notice that they have a personal issue with vaccines, and get their kids into schools despite a lack of vaccination. The rates of people asking for these exemptions has been slowly climbing, rising from half a percent in 1996 to 1.5 percent in 2007.
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