A student from Yuba River Charter School in Nevada County returned from a trip overseas with measles, which prompted the public health to shut down the school to prevent an outbreak. Nevada County in California is known as one of the places with the lowest rate of vaccination.
According to Huffington Post, there's an on-going investigation on an unvaccinated child, who showed symptoms of measles after returning from an overseas trip on March 17. While the child seemed to have recovered, he remained a possible carrier of infection in an area where vaccination is very low. The public health officials closed the school until all students get vaccinated. The students will have until April 8 to get the measles vaccine.
CBS Sacramento adds that the school already reopened last Wednesday to students who were already vaccinated. The school officials will make sure no unvaccinated student goes back to school to prevent a possible outbreak. Based on the school records, there were 225 students exposed to the infectious disease with 124 of them unvaccinated. That's only 43 percent of the exposed students. In Nevada, only 77.1 percent of kindergartners are up to date with their vaccination requirements, the second lowest in the country. It closely followed Trinity County with 77 percent vaccination rate.
MEASLES: drive thru vaccination station up & running in Nevada County Where there's 1 confirmed case @FOX40 pic.twitter.com/Ao5sPoeopj
— Ali Wolf (@awolfTV) March 31, 2016
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared measles as a highly contagious, viral respiratory disease that could be fatal if untreated. It has recorded 146,000 worldwide deaths each year. However, this infectious disease can be easily avoided through MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccines.
Experts have raised their concerns over the low vaccination rates. Many parents refused to vaccinate their children, fearing side effects such as autism despite lacking medical evidence to establish the link. In 2000, measles has been completely eliminated in the United States, however, unvaccinated children have spurred the outbreaks once more. Just last year, there was a report of one thought to have come from Disneyland.
In response, a new vaccine law was passed in the state legislature last year requiring all California students to be vaccinated. Effective July 1, there will be no accepted reasons aside from medical ones to exempt children from getting vaccinated. This will take effect both in public and private schools. Parents, who wish not to have their children vaccinated, can have them homeschooled, the report says. To know more about the law, check out the video below:
