Somali forums held to stem outbreak
Local health officials are hosting forums in Columbus this week after a recent measles outbreak among Somali populations in Minnesota.
Columbus has the secondlargest Somali population in the United States behind Minneapolis, and health officials fear a possible outbreak in central Ohio as families in both cities visit one another this summer.
Columbus Public Health and Franklin County Public Health officials will meet with doctors, Somali leaders and community members today and Saturday to discuss the outbreak and how parents can protect their families by getting vaccinations and knowing the signs and symptoms.
“We are primarily concerned about children and adults who have not had their MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines,” said Hibo H. Noor, health program manager with the Office of
Minority Health at Columbus Public Health. “We want to make sure to educate the community.”
Dr. Mysheika Williams Roberts, medical director and assistant health commissioner with Columbus Public Health, said diseases are too easily spread.
“Any good infectious disease like measles is just a plane ride away,” she said.
Health officials in Minnesota have been tracking measles cases throughout the state for the past month. As of Thursday afternoon, there were 63 cases there. Of those, 60 were confirmed in unvaccinated individuals, including 53 Somalis.
Measles symptoms usually appear seven to 18 days after exposure and include a fever followed by a cough, a runny nose and a red, blotchy rash on the face that spreads down the neck and the body over several days.
Minnesota health officials link the high numbers
of unvaccinated Somali children in their state with an aggressive campaign by anti-vaccine advocates several years ago that targeted Somali parents, saying that vaccinating their children would cause autism.
“This could happen in any community that is given misinformation,” said Jose Rodriguez, spokesman for Columbus Public Health.
Hassan Omar, executive director of the Somali Community Association of Ohio, said the community understands there are health risks.
He said he hopes these events help to educate people, as well as break any stereotypes that residents might have about Somalis.
“Everybody is worried about this,” Omar said. “We don’t want there to be a stigma. We’re Americans, we’re Midwestern. We have children that are all up-todate for vaccinations.”
The last large measles outbreak in Ohio occurred in 2014, when there were hundreds of cases in Ashland, Coshocton, Crawford, Highland, Holmes, Knox, Richland, Stark and Wayne counties.
Measles cases then were at a 20-year high in the United States, driven largely by the outbreak among unvaccinated Amish populations in Ohio.
The forums are scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. today at the Somali Community Association of Ohio at 3422 Cleveland Ave., and from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Abubakar Assidiq Islamic Center on 591 Industrial Mile Rd.