Ignoring vaccines promotes disease
News about communicable diseases in Ohio keeps getting worse. Mumps have shown up in 15 counties, mainly Franklin, Delaware and Madison, with 361 cases statewide since Jan. 1. Measles have appeared in Amish country and now Delaware County, with 75 cases statewide.
Ohio needs to ramp up what’s known as its “herd immunity”: People vaccinated against viruses form a shield of protection around the most vulnerable members of society — infants, pregnant women, the elderly, the chronically ill — who can’t take vaccines. But enough people have to be vaccinated to sustain that effect, and chinks are developing in the vaccination armor.
One good place to start is with very young children. House Bill 536, introduced on Tuesday by Reps. Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood, and Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, would require all licensed day-care centers to mandate vaccines for the children in their care.
Ohio is the only state that does not legally mandate vaccines for preschoolers; the requirement starts in kindergarten. And parents can exempt their children for medical or personal reasons, which still would be allowed under H.B. 536.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services already requires day cares to collect vaccination forms from parents, showing whether their children are following the immunization schedule.
Antonio said most centers are compliant, but if they aren’t, the current rules have no teeth.
Under the bill, centers would turn families away if they haven’t gotten their children vaccinated and don’t have a valid reason.
In a way, public-health successes over the past century or so have opened the door for the anti-vaccine sentiment, which isn’t scientifically sound. People take for granted their good health and that of their children.
This makes them feel safe in regarding life-preserving vaccines as poisons because they haven’t had to live among those suffering paralysis, deformities, deafness or blindness caused by microscopic invaders. They haven’t witnessed the wards full of “iron lungs” breathing for polio victims.
But take an outbreak on the scale of the flu of 1919 and that blithe sense of invincibility is gone.
Recently, the World Health Organization declared polio outbreaks in 10 countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East to be an “extraordinary event” and an international publichealth emergency.
Vaccines are important and are becoming more so. Protecting the youngest Ohioans, who exchange viruses and bacteria in close quarters, just makes sense.
Medical cost doesn’t have to be an obstacle, by the way. Both the Columbus and Franklin County public health agencies offer childhood vaccines, and they charge on a sliding scale based on income. No child is turned away. In fact, Columbus is offering the MMR vaccine for free because of the mumps outbreak. And on June 3 at the Jeffrey Mansion in Bexley, Franklin County will give free Tdap shots to adults, which guard against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.
Information can be found at http://bit.ly/1luSCEz and http://bit.ly/1oXU7yB.