COLUMBUS, Ohio – There’s no state in the nation with fewer toddlers protected against measles, mumps and rubella than Ohio.
Ohio shares the bottom slot with West Virginia and Colorado, based on the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a report in the Columbus Dispatch.
The CDC data shows that 86 percent of 19- to 35-month-old Ohio children had the vaccine, according to the 2013 National Immunization Survey.
Nationally, 91.1 percent of preschoolers are vaccinated. Top states have rates of 96 or above.
The nonprofit Trust for America’s Health highlighted the numbers yesterday, pointing to a multi-state measles outbreak as evidence of what can go wrong when immunization rates dip.
Ohioans didn’t have to wait until the recent flurry of national headlines about the outbreak — linked to Disneyland and responsible for illness in at least 102 people in 14 states, to understand the damage that can ensue when a rarely seen illness starts to spread.
Last year, a mumps outbreak in and around Columbus raised concerns about vaccinations. Then it was measles, a bit north of central Ohio, with an outbreak of 383 cases, primarily among unvaccinated Amish. It was the worst measles outbreak in the nation in recent years.
Higher percentages of unvaccinated people expose communities to outbreaks of diseases not usually seen in the United States, and as the Disneyland outbreak continues to sicken people, debates about stricter policies requiring vaccination have ensued.
The CDC recommends that children get two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at 12 months to 15 months of age and the second between 4 and 6 years of age.
Children don’t get vaccines for a variety of reasons including missing well-child checkups. But much of the conversation of late centers on parents who object to vaccinations, sometimes because of fears linked to a since disproven study that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
California lawmakers are proposing legislation that would require parents to vaccinate all school children unless a child’s health is in danger. Parents could no longer cite personal beliefs or religious reasons to send unvaccinated children to private and public schools.