Malpractice News: Vaccination Exemptions—Unvaccinated Children Cause Outbreaks of Measles and Whooping Cough

Malpractice News: While the majority of parents in the United States have their children vaccinated, a study of vaccination statistics has shown that the percentage of parents who requested medical or personal belief exemptions to vaccinations increased from less than 1 percent in 2001 to about 2.5 percent in 2004. When children are not vaccinated against diseases such as measles, pertussis (whooping cough) and other diseases preventable by vaccination, they are at risk to not only contract the disease, but to spread them to others.

In Ashland, Oregon, a town with a population of only 21,000, nearly 30 percent of the children starting kindergarten have been issued exemptions for some or all of the vaccines required by Oregon law. That exemption rate means the number of unvaccinated children in Ashland is 7 times higher than the rest of Oregon, and 12 times higher than the rest of the U.S.

When more than 10 percent of a community opts out of vaccinations, it leaves the entire community at risk. Health experts refer to this problem as "herd immunity," which is the level of protection necessary in order to keep a disease from spreading. According to the Center for Disease Control, some diseases, such as mumps, can tolerate a herd immunity threshold as low as 75 percent, while other diseases, such as measles or whooping cough, require collective immunity of up to 94 percent to avoid infection.

In 2005, an unimmunized 17-year-old girl from Indiana contracted the measles virus on a trip to Romania. The day after she returned, she attended a gathering of 500 people, and caused an outbreak where 34 people, mostly children who had not been vaccinated, contracted the virus. The cost to contain the outbreak was estimated at nearly $168,000.

In addition to measles, a summer 2008 outbreak of whooping cough underscores this dangerous trend. Little League teams from South Whidbey Island, Washington were eliminated from a regional All-Star Tournament after an outbreak of the bacterial infection. 88 people were diagnosed in an area where only one to two cases per year are reported. Government health officials reported that the community’s low vaccination rates were to blame for the outbreak.

Our medical malpractice lawyers are here to help you.

If you have been harmed by a health professional, please complete the form below for a free medical malpractice lawsuit review. A representative of our firm will be in touch shortly.

Click To Talk To Us Online

see also:

Malpractice News: Measles and Whooping Cough Malpractice News: Measles and whooping cough oubreaks in unvaccinated
Malpractice News: Read about outbreaks of measles and whooping cough

Malpractice News: Measles Outbreaks Malpractice News: Over 130 children diagnosed with measles in 2008
Malpractice News: More outbreaks of measles being reported in the U.S.