San Diego measles outbreak

school in Clairemont; and a public charter school in Linda Vista.

In the United States, measles can be fatal in up to three per 1,000 children who contract it. The death rates are higher in developing countries. Children are more at risk of suffering complications, including pneumonia and swelling of the brain, than senior citizens. Most adults have been immunized by the measles vaccine or by getting measles when they were young.

The outbreak began when a seven-year-old returned from a family vacation in Switzerland on 15 January infected with measles. More than 400 cases of measles occur in Switzerland each year, about triple the total in the United States. The seven-year-old goes to the San Diego Cooperative Charter School in Linda Vista. The child set off a chain reaction that has infected two siblings, one of whom was a fellow charter student, and at least one classmate. The seven-year-old’s parents took the youngster to the Children’s Clinic of La Jolla, on La Jolla Boulevard in Bird Rock, on 25 January. The child may have coughed and sneezed in the office, potentially infecting four other patients. Those four patients returned to the clinic between 5 and 8 February, possibly spreading the virus to sixty other children. One of the infants who became infected 25 January at the clinic is the eleven-month old whose family flew to Hawaii. Another is a ten-month-old child who was hospitalized Friday with measles symptoms, but whose test results have not been confirmed. This baby went to the Baldwin Academy day care center and the Murray Callan Swim School, both in Pacific Beach.

“Measles is very very contagious,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, a pediatrician and president-elect of the San Diego County Medical Society. “Kids under a year who haven’t received the routine vaccination are at risk of getting sick, and that’s what will happen if we start getting higher percentages of parents not vaccinating their children.” Under state law, parents can decline to have their children vaccinated based on medical, religious or personal reasons. Many have done so out of fear — which doctors say is unfounded — that the vaccine may cause autism. The vaccine does not contain thimerosal, a compound that some people link to autism. Officials for the Baldwin Academy and the Callan swim school said they have been besieged with phone calls from the public. They are upset that health officials released the names of their businesses when they did nothing wrong. Wooten emphasized that the schools and programs were not to blame. “It is not a reflection of the care or level of service provided at these facilities,” she said.

Measles was widespread in the United States before a vaccine was developed in the early 1960s. At that time, many parents would be grateful when their children got measles. The infection meant their children would be immunized for the rest of their lives. Today, non-immunization rates throughout San Diego County average 1.6 percent in preschool students and 2.5 percent in kindergarteners, Wooten said. Ten percent of the children at the San Diego Cooperative Charter School, where the seven-year-old who started the outbreak is a student, were not vaccinated. That’s the highest percentage rate of unvaccinated students in the San Diego Unified School District, said district nurse Eileen Griffiths. Students whose parents decline vaccination have been barred from returning to their schools or programs until Feb. 26, when health officials believe their risk of becoming infected or infecting others would have passed.