Advertisement

Countywide : No Money for 2nd Measles Shots

Share

Though experts say that a second measles shot could halt a national epidemic, public health officials in Orange County and around the state say they can afford to give only one to children of low-income families.

California needed $14.5 million for measles and other childhood vaccines but received state and federal appropriations this fiscal year of only $10.7 million, said Dr. Loring Dales, chief of the immunization unit for the state Department of Health Services.

“We’re looking at almost a $4-million shortfall, so a second dose is out of the question,” Dales said. “We face a desperate situation. . . . Right now we’ll have to turn away children and adults at public clinics who are seeking a second dose.”

Advertisement

Orange County epidemiologist Thomas Prendergast agreed. A second measles shot “can’t be our first priority,” he said. “We need to focus on people who need their primary immunizations completed.”

Both Prendergast and Dales noted that children can still get a second measles shot from private physicians, but that it would probably cost $15 or more.

More than half the 386 Orange County residents who contracted measles this year were preschool-age Latino children who had never been immunized, Prendergast said. Only 109 Orange County residents contracted measles in 1988.

Reacting to a national outbreak of measles, two physician groups are recommending that children receive the second shot.

In July, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised that youngsters entering junior high school receive a measles booster. Junior high is a “high-risk period” for contracting measles and sometimes children who have been immunized are no longer immune to the disease, said Dr. Milton Schwarz, president of the Orange County chapter of the group.

On Dec. 29, a national advisory committee to the U.S. Public Health Service is expected to issue another recommendation for a booster shot.

Advertisement

Even though children are regularly vaccinated at 12 or 15 months, “there does seem to be some vaccine failure,” said Dr. Laura Fehrs, a medical epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Though concern about measles in Orange County continues, there are signs that the epidemic here may be abating, Prendergast said.

Advertisement