The recent upsurge in measles cases, with 85 so far reported in seven states, may not be an issue for Indiana.

According to Ross Silverman, a professor of health policy and management at IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana has stricter vaccination requirements for children to enroll in school than other states.

In an article published Jan. 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Silverman and a co-author stated that a number of communities across the US were experiencing significant outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses, such as pertussis, mumps and measles. These were associated with increasing numbers of families not getting immunizations for children.

Silverman further observed that all states allow medical exemptions for children’s vaccinations and all states except Mississippi and West Virginia offer parents the right to seek exemption based on religious beliefs. However, California and 19 other states allow parents to opt their children out of immunization requirements on broader grounds, such as philosophical and moral reasons.

In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 17,000 California kindergartners received exemptions from state vaccine requirements, while only approximately 730 Indiana kindergartners received exemptions.

“Outbreaks of measles occur when unvaccinated people exposed to measles during travel return home and come in contact with more unvaccinated populations,” said Silverman. “Vaccinations are the key to prevent such an outbreak. They protect the individual child from contracting serious and highly contagious diseases and help stop their spread.”

Source: Fox 28