At the end of December, Hidabrut reported on a measles outbreak in the L.A. Orthodox Jewish community. See related article: http://www.hidabroot.com/article/192458/Measles-Outbreak-in-Los-Angeles-Jewish-Community
However that measles outbreak has continued, infecting someone last week though of the 20 people,most of them in Los Angeles County, wre infected last month. This whole epidemic started only 6 months after California’s strict vaccine law took effect and prompted a search for others who may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus.
At least 15 of the 18 L.A. County patients either knew one another or had a clear social connection, said Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, interim health officer for the L.A. County Department of Public Health. None of the 18 could provide proof of vaccination, he said.
Rabbi Hershy Z. Ten, who runs Jewish healthcare foundation Bikur Cholim in L.A.’s Beverly Grove neighborhood, was quoted in our previous article after sending a letter to the Orthodox Jewish community urging them to get up to date with their measles vaccinations, citing county health officials who told him a measles outbreak was affecting the county’s Orthodox Jewish community. He convened a panel last week that discussed steps Jewish day schools and synagogues could take to stem the outbreak and ensure unvaccinated children are immunized. “Measles is very, very serious,” he said. “Those children are at risk and they put other children at risk.”
Gunzenhauser said the first person was diagnosed in early December, followed by 16 cases in the last three weeks of 2016, and then one more case last week. “I’m hopeful that we’re getting to the end of this,” he said.
At Disneyland in 2014, a measles outbreak infected 145 people across the United States, as well as dozens in Canada and Mexico. This outbreak led California to pass a law, which took effect in July, requiring all children to be vaccinated unless a doctor provides a medical exemption.
California is now one of three states that forbid children from opting out of vaccines because of religious or personal beliefs. Health experts say the outbreak shows how much the immunity against measles has eroded. The law is helping but not fast enough.
Dr. Robert Adler, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles said: “It really speaks to what we’re so concerned about, which is parents making their decisions not to vaccinate their kids, and they can bring their kids into any setting and then contaminate everyone.”
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world. If an infected person walks into a room, the virus can stay there for two hours after the person leaves, ready to infect someone. And it’s dangerous — 15 people die every hour worldwide from measles, according to the World Health Organization.
Trying to stop measles spreading in Southern California, L.A. County health workers for the last several weeks chased down people whom they think might have been exposed to it. People infected eventually develop a rash, but until it shows up they can transmit the virus to others undetected for weeks.
County health workers interviewed each person infected finding out everywhere they went from four days before they developed a rash. They then had to figure out who might have been at these places. For example, if someone went to an emergency room, the health workers asked the hospital for a list of patients there that day.
Ultimately, the county successfully identified over 2,000 people who might have been in contact with a measles patient, and found that about 10% of them weren’t vaccinated. Half of those found were immediately vaccinated or given other preventative treatment.
The outbreak was contained to a group of people who shared a social circle, which made it easier to track down who might have come into contact with the virus, Gunzenhauser said. “It is a little bit unusual, but it’s fortunate. If this is a Disneyland thing or if this happened at Staples Center … that would be problematic for us.” However, that doesn’t mean people in other parts of the county are safe from the highly contagious virus, he said. “Measles just isn’t that way,” he said. “They could’ve driven and let’s say they stopped at a gas station — somebody could’ve gotten exposed.”
This group he was talking about was the Orthodox Jewish community. It is somewhat contained meaning that the risk is somewhat less for those outside that community. But it also means that the community itself is still in danger.
The law making vaccination mandatory mainly focused on school aged children. Children are supposed to receive two vaccines to protect against measles before they start kindergarten. Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) is the physician who wrote the legislation. But Pan is more worried about the thousands of Californians that finished their schooling and never got vaccinated. “You have critical masses of people who never got caught up on their immunizations,” Pan said. “We’ve been accumulating an ever-growing number … and that becomes the basis and source of outbreaks.”
That fear seems to have become the reality. Of the 18 cases in L.A. County, the biggest share were people in their 20s, though ages ranged from young children to older adults, Gunzenhauser said.
Dr. Adler, with Children’s Hospital, said some parents don’t vaccinate their kids because they believe they’ll be protected by herd immunity — the idea that if a certain percentage of people are vaccinated everyone will be safe from illness. But measles is so contagious that up to 99% of people need to be immunized to establish herd immunity.
Certain Rabbanim said that a person has the halachic right to decide on vaccinating his child. However the Rabbanim never recommended breaking the law and should not be quoted as such.
In light of the outbreak these Rabbanim should again be consulted about vaccinating their children immediately:
A. To prevent danger to their own children.
B. To prevent endangering others.
C. To clarify that no rabbi encourages breaking the law.
You may save your own child’s life. You also wouldn’t want to be the cause of untold harm to others. So if you haven’t yet vaccinated, do it today.
