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Infants to Be Given Measles Shots in Fight Against Epidemic : Health: Authorities to lower the normal inoculation age from 15 months to under one year in an all-out effort to stop the spread of the disease.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

County health officials, in an all-out effort to halt the spread of red measles among small children in Orange County, say they will begin giving measles vaccines to high-risk infants under the age of 1 beginning next week.

Medical officials usually suggest children receive the vaccination after 15 months due to the often low effectiveness rate the shot may have in infants.

“As a rule, children are given this shot at or around 15 months,” said Ken Anderson of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. “Prior to that time, maternal antibodies are more than likely still present in the baby’s system.”

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A baby receives the antibodies against diseases while still in the mother’s womb. Shortly after birth, the passive antibodies lose their effectiveness, and the child begins to build his own defenses against diseases.

The decision to vaccinate infants comes in the wake of 12 measles-related deaths in California this year, including two in Orange County. By contrast, there were only 10 deaths statewide last year.

Because Orange County has declared measles a public health emergency, as have many other counties, it will share in a $5.8-million special state fund created to fight the epidemic. Orange County health officials say the county will receive enough vaccine to inoculate about 3,000 children. The doses will be distributed to more than 74 Well-Child Health Clinics in Orange County, where high-risk infants will be inoculated beginning next week.

Red measles causes a rash, high fever and a dry cough for about 10 days. It can also cause brain damage and possible death.

“Though it isn’t done on a regular basis, local health officials may find a serious outbreak situation warrants this type of early vaccination,” Anderson said.

The measles epidemic has plagued southern California for more than two years, and Anderson added that it may be caused by children not getting the vaccination shots at the prescribed time.

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At 15 months, children are required to received a vaccination that will protect them from the measles, mumps and rubella. The shot that will be given in the coming weeks will only protect the child from the measles.

For now, the county will concentrate on vaccinating only children at high risk for the disease-those mostly from impoverished and Latino backgrounds.

“A very large percentage of the children afflicted with measles have been Hispanics,” said Gerald Wagner, director of the local health department’s immunization center. “What we are hoping to do is reach these children when they come into our Well-Child clinics for checkups or what have you.”

State and local health officials speculate that poor Latino children are at a higher risk because of crowded living conditions and because their mothers may not have had the disease. If a mother has not had the measles, she will not pass any protection to her unborn child.

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