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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