U.S. Likely To Hold Measles Elimination Status Despite Recent Outbreaks, But CDC Calls For ‘Heightened Vigilance’
If the measles outbreaks had continued past Oct. 2, the country would have lost the status dating to 1999. The Wall Street Journal reports on the immunization status of schools across the country. Rates have fallen in some communities to as low as 50% in small, private schools.
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Expects To Hold On To Measles Elimination Status
Federal health authorities expect the U.S. will retain its coveted status as a nation that has eliminated domestic transmission of measles, dodging a bullet after outbreaks in New York state threatened the designation. It came down to the wire for U.S. officials to be able to determine, at the last minute, that the elimination status had likely not been lost. It would have been if outbreaks in New York state were continuing. (McKay and West, 10/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Thousands Of Schools Fall Below Recommended Measles Vaccination Rate
Thousands of individual schools in the U.S. don’t have high enough immunization levels to meet the threshold considered adequate to protect a population from measles, a Wall Street Journal examination found. While the majority of schools have relatively high measles-mumps-rubella vaccination rates of 90% or above, many schools have rates in the 70% to 80% range, and some small, private schools have rates hovering around 50%. While the U.S. overall had a fairly high and stable MMR immunization rate of 94.3% of kindergartners during the 2017-2018 school year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these pockets of low vaccination leave local communities vulnerable to outbreaks. (Abbott, Umlauf and Moriarty, 10/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
What’s The Measles Vaccination Rate At Your Child’s School?
Use the drop-down feature to choose your state to look up local kindergarten immunization rates, how the state collects its data, and the number of measles cases so far this year. If your state only has county-level data available, you can see the county-level rates here. The separate county-level article also contains more information about our methodology and results. (Moriarty, Umlauf and Abbott, 10/3)
