16 April 11 • 2019
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at 4-6 years. Children can receive the
second dose earlier if it is at least 28
days after the first dose. High immu-
nization rates protect those who are
immunosuppressed or are too young to
receive an immunization.
Dr. Udi Kapen, a pediatrician in
Bingham Farms, says there are immu-
nization changes for very young infants
during a disease outbreak. “If there’
s
any question of exposure, a baby as
young as 6 months can receive the
vaccine,
” he said. “Younger than that,
they can get a dose of measles immune
globulin, which would likely be admin-
istered at the health department.
”
Dr. Lisa Klein, a pediatrician in Troy
and Novi, said Merck, the nation’
s sup-
plier of the MMR vaccine, has been
very responsive to her office’
s vaccine
supply needs. Though she said things
have quieted down since the outbreak
was first reported, it could pick up
again soon because of the disease’
s
21-day incubation cycle.
According to the OCHD, anyone
who has not received two documented
doses of MMR or has not had a con-
firmed case of measles can get measles.
If exposed, approximately 90 percent of
people who have not been vaccinated
or previously had measles will develop
the disease. Since the first case was con-
firmed March 13, the OCHD has given
more than 2,000 vaccinations.
Laura Hirschhorn, 52, of Huntington
Woods got her MMR booster for free
at the OCHD without getting her
titers checked. Many of the points of
exposure, including Westborn Market,
are all places she frequents. She also
is alarmed at the high immunization
waiver rate for 2017 within the Berkley
school district, where one elementary
school was as high as 9 percent. Her
daughter attends Berkley schools. She
says she thinks being immunized is the
responsibility of every citizen to protect
those who for medical or age reasons
cannot be immunized.
“I travel a lot for my job,
” Hirschhorn
said. “I would feel horrible if I spread
the disease to someone who is
immune-compromised. There is no
reason that this outbreak should be
happening.
” ■
COUNTY STATISTICS
According to a Metro Times article
from February 2019, the city of Detroit
has higher vaccination rates than
wealthier surrounding school districts.
The article stated that highly educated
parts of Michigan are those where vac-
cine exemption waivers are the highest.
According to a Baylor University study,
Oakland County has the fifth highest
number of vaccination exemption
waivers in the country.
In the Troy school district, waiver
rates among kindergarteners, sixth
graders and transfer students ranged
between 3 and 29 percent with paro-
chial and private schools having the
highest percentage of students with
waivers, according to 2017 MDHHS
data.
In the Berkeley school district, waiv-
er percentage rates were also running
into the double digits at most schools,
and no school hit the 95 percent
benchmark for effective vaccination
rates. Elementary schools in Oak
Park and Huntington Woods neigh-
borhoods, where the outbreak is the
most severe, have some of the lowest
vaccination rates in Oakland County,
according to 2017 MDHHS statistics.
Among childcare centers, data shows
85 percent of enrolled children are
completely vaccinated with 3.4 percent
of children attending with waivers.
Oakland County’
s latest quarter-
ly immunization report card from
December 2018 shows that only 75 per-
cent of the county’
s children between
19 and 35 months had received immu-
nizations including the MMR vaccine,
5 percent below the state’
s goal for 80
percent by 2020; and 4.8 percent of kin-
dergarteners in Oakland County had
parental vaccination waivers — above
the state’
s average rate of 3.6 percent.
Statewide, the number of parents
seeking waivers has been rising. Overall
immunization waivers for kindergarten
students increased from 3.66 percent of
children in 2016 to 4.2 percent in 2017.
The percentage of children with immu-
nization waivers continues to be higher
in private schools (7.91 percent) than
public schools (3.88 percent).
Parents seeking transparency need
not look any further than reports on
the Michigan Department of Health
and Human Services website to know
where their child’
s school or childcare
center rates in how many kindergart-
eners, middle schoolers or transfer stu-
dents are attending with immunization
waivers. ■
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