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Emergency Declared Near Portland, Oregon for Measles Outbreak in Anti-Vaccine Hotspot

posted by mrpg on Thursday January 24 2019, @10:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the smart-phones-but-no-smart-people dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Emergency declared near Portland for measles outbreak in anti-vaccine hotspot

Health officials in Clark County, Washington have declared a public health emergency for a measles outbreak in an area with a high rate of unvaccinated children.

[...] Nearly eight percent of children in Clark County were exempt from standard vaccination for the 2017-2018 school year, according to state records reported by the Washington Post. Breaking down that eight percent, about seven percent of kids had personal or religious exemptions and the remaining one percent or so had medical exemptions. Factoring in the rest of the population, the county is below the 92 percent to 94 percent range some experts consider required to prevent the spread of highly contagious diseases such as measles.

[...] “It’s really awful and really tragic and totally preventable,” Peter J. Hotez told the Post. Hotez is a professor of pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Portland is a total train wreck when it comes to vaccine rates,” he added.

[...] Correction: This article has been updated to correct the state in which Clark County resides. It is in Washington State, not Oregon. 

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:35PM (3 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:35PM (#791252) Homepage Journal

    That you've never seen one is due to outbreaks being preceded by several days of I think itching.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:45PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:45PM (#791257) Homepage Journal

    I was just a kid, and didn't keep a journal or anything - but I think there was a day or two of headache/nausea/lethargy, in the middle of which the spots began to appear. The spots don't itch at first, but after several hours, or a day, then they start itching. And, you can't go back to school til the spots are gone, and Mom won't let you out of the house because you're "sick", so all the kids drive Mother bug-fuck crazy. And, at that point, you learn the real danger: Mother may perform a VERY late term abortion on your ass!

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @06:23PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @06:23PM (#791353)

      Was this a peer reviewed journal?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @07:51PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @07:51PM (#791405)

        I peered into his window, and yep, there was a journal on the table.