An astonishing 1 in 20 public school kindergartners aren’t getting all of the required vaccinations in eight states, including Alaska, says new report.
The increasing amount of parents opting out of recommended vaccinations for this children has been concerning for Pediatrics Anchorage, AK for quite some time, however the new report confirms that this trend is only going to progress.
It’s “really gotten much worse,” Mary Selecky, secretary of health for Washington state told the Associated Press. Washington is one of 10 states identified as having a 1.5 percent increase in the last 5 years of parent’s exempting their children from vaccines. Pediatrics Anchorage Alaska had the highest rate at nearly 9 % followed by Colorado, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Michigan and Illinois.
Experts say that more parents are opting out of vaccinating this children citing a variety of reasons including medical, religious or philosophical. However, many parents are becoming more and more weary of vaccinations and their cumulative effect on children.
Jennifer Margulis, a mother of four and author of a parenting book author commented that, “Many of the vaccines are unnecessary and public health officials don’t honestly know what the effect of giving so many vaccines to such small children really are.”
However, public health officials disagree. Although the likelihood of a resurgence of these diseases is low, without a 100% vaccination rate this is always possible. Such was the casein the 2010 resurgence of whooping cough in California where over 2,100 cases were identified and 10 infants died.
“Polio can come back. China was polio free for two decades, and just this year, they were infected from Pakistan, and there is a big outbreak of polio China now. The same could happen here,” said Dr. Lance Rodewald from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the AP.
Currently, Pediatrician Anchorage AK recommends that all children receive the full course of vaccinations which begins with Hepatitis B at birth in order to have the maximum protection against life threatening diseases. At this time there is no recognized evidence to support any danger of receiving vaccinations.
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