More Kids Are Getting Measles

The worsening state measles epidemic signals both a public health failure and the need for an emergency response to vaccinate more children.

Clearly, the vaccination program has not reached enough younger children. An estimated 90% of California’s school-age youngsters have been protected because vaccination is required for entry into schools or state-licensed day-care centers. Among young children, however, only about 70% have been vaccinated by their second birthday, and that proportion falls to 50% among ethnic minorities. The public-health goal is to vaccinate all children by their 15th month.

What happened? “The two major reasons for this low level of vaccination appear to be a lack of appreciation of the importance of having children immunized, especially among immigrant and ethnic minority populations, and increasingly limited access to free or low-cost immunization services,” says Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, head of the California Department of Health Services. Kizer has asked for an additional $8.8 million, including $6.8 million from unallocated tobacco-tax revenues. The Legislature is expected to vote this week on the tobacco-tax money that could speed a vaccination outreach program. More clinics are already being established. Los Angeles County is opening 23 more clinics for free vaccinations.

In Southern California, the biggest increases in the disease have been in San Diego County, up from 191 cases in all of 1989 to 467 cases in the first three months of this year; Riverside, up from 166 to 512; San Bernardino, from 650 last year to 910, and Los Angeles County, up from 1,202 to 1,411. Alameda County has also had a large increase. Only Orange and Ventura counties have caseloads for the first three months of this year that are less than the total for all of last year.

The failure to provide universal protection against measles is part of a pattern of national neglect cited earlier this year by the nation’s pediatricians and children’s hospitals. None of the 1990 goals set by the surgeon general for child vaccination programs have been met, they found. With measles, that neglect can mean death. In the first three months of this year, 23 children have died. The last bad year was 1964, when 22 died. The neglect that killed them also reflects the recklessness of short-changing programs that not only save lives but also save millions of dollars through prevention.

Measles Deaths State totals reported by California Dept. of Health Services