The measles outbreak that
began in Disneyland has now affected people in 7 states and Mexico, a total of
87 people and counting.
In the East Bay, today we get news that 30 babies are under isolation in Alameda County.
Officials with the Alameda County Public Health Department asked the parents of the infants to keep their children at home to avoid further exposure to the contagious illness, department spokeswoman Sherri Willis said.
The babies are not infected, Willis said, but had some contact or connection to the measles patients in Alameda County.
Five confirmed measles cases exist in Alameda County at this point. Four are clearly related to the Disneyland outbreak.
The low vaccination rates in the Bay Area are disturbing and are found among children from lower, middle and upper class households.
With alarm over the Disneyland measles outbreak growing across California, almost 5,000 kindergartners enrolled in Bay Area schools are without proof they've been fully vaccinated, a major concern as the highly infectious disease continues to spread.
Alameda County is home to schools with some of the highest percentages of kindergartners whose vaccination records are incomplete, according to an analysis of state Department of Public Health records, topping 80 percent at some Oakland Unified schools. On the other side of the bay, about two-thirds of the students at the private Waldorf School in upscale Los Altos Hills didn't have the proper immunizations.
I'm not sure what the point of mandatory vaccinations for public schools is if any parent can sign a "personal belief exemption" to get their kid out of the requirement. Also, there appears to be no accountability or follow up on the school's part
after a waiver is granted.
This school year, 9.68 percent of Alameda County students entered kindergarten on a conditional basis, well above the state average of 6.68 percent.
"It is basically an honor system that schools are appropriately following up on those students," said Pine.
Dr. Gil Chavez, state epidemiologist and deputy director of the California Department of Public Health, acknowledged that.
"There is no reporting required of schools on their follow-up activities with 'conditional' entrants," Chavez said.
Holy crap, California!