Vaccinate school-age children to prevent disease outbreaks, says health official

As the new school year begins, health officials are strongly urging parents to ensure their children’s immunization records are up to date to prevent outbreaks of still prevalent diseases like measles and mumps.

“A lot of people think all these diseases aren’t around anymore and so we don’t need to get vaccinated against them and, in fact, that’s not true,” said Kurt Seetoo, immunization program manager for the Maryland Department of Health. “A lot of these diseases, although they may not be here in the U.S., they are still circulating in other areas of the world.”

In April, a measles outbreak in Minnesota was believed to have originated from Somali immigrant families, exacerbated by low rates of immunizations in that community. The outbreak was declared over Aug. 25, with a total of 79 people sickened and 22 hospitalizations. Most were children under the age of 10.

Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but European countries didn’t commit to eradicating the disease until 2010 by increasing administration of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR).

The World Health Organization reported that large outbreaks of measles in Europe in 2015 hindered any progress made in increasing vaccination rates. At that time 94 percent of the target population had received a first-dose vaccination and 88 percent a second dose.

Mr. Seetoo said that unvaccinated Americans traveling abroad risk bringing the disease back to their communities.

“Being such a mobile population, these diseases are just a plane ride away, literally,” he said. “We want to make sure that we encourage parents to make sure that their children are vaccinated and that they are protected so that none of these diseases can kind of gain a foothold here and spread.”

Complicity with vaccinations in the U.S. is extremely high, ranging between 80 percent to more than 90 percent.

Vaccines that toddlers, kindergartners and schoolchildren need include the diphtheria/tetanus and whooping cough vaccine (DTP), polio MMR, chickenpox, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease. Children’s ages are and the grades they are entering determine how many doses they need.

In Maryland, Mr. Seetoo said vaccination rates for kindergartners are greater than 99 percent. Parents can argue for exemption for vaccinations based on medical or religious reasons, but Mr. Seetoo said that such exemptions are historically low, at less than 1 percent.

In the case of the Minnesota measles outbreak, many Somali families — who were disproportionately affected — were found to have not vaccinated their children for fear of triggering autism. Many studies have debunked the belief that vaccinations lead to autism, and the Minnesota Department of Health launched initiatives to educate and engage the community to address their fears of vaccinations.

High rates of vaccinations among groups help ensure “herd immunity,” Mr. Seetoo said.

“The idea behind herd immunity is that you have such a high level of vaccination that even those people that cannot get vaccination are also protected,” he said.

Health officials also are urging that girls and boys ages 12 and 13 receive the vaccine for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which can lead to certain types of cancer.

HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, with about 80 percent of people getting an HPV infection in their life time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since a push for HPV vaccination in girls began in 2006, infections with HPV types that cause HPV cancer and genital warts have dropped by 71 percent, according to the CDC. Since 2011 the CDC has recommended HPV vaccination in boys.

Mr. Seetoo said HPV vaccination rates “are not very high nationwide.”

HPV vaccination rates increased between 2015 and 2016, but only 60 percent of teens aged 13-17 received one or more doses, according to the CDC’s 2016 National Immunization Survey for teens.