Parents Stand Firm Against Vaccination Amid Measles Outbreak
ALISO VIEJO (CBSLA.com) — Parents who have opted against vaccinating their children are standing firm with their decision amid California's worst measles outbreak in 15 years.
A measles scare shut down Sharp Health Care in La Mesa in San Diego County Wednesday, where six people went to the urgent care unit with rashes and measles-like symptoms.
The clinic's closure in San Diego is just the latest in a string of measles-related scares since authorities said dozens of people contracted the disease at Disneyland during mid-December.
Parents at an Aliso Viejo park say think their choice to not vaccinate is still the best one.
"Well, I realized, reading through the books and knowing what was inside all these vaccines, I just didn't feel comfortable putting them into my child," parent Christy Thompson said.
The outbreak at Disneyland, which has sickened 26 people in three states, is the worst in 15 years, according to state health officials. A significant number of those patients were not vaccinated against the disease, and included children too young for the vaccine.
"A child who dies of measles or has a severe outcome or a severe complications, that's a tragedy, because that's a completely preventable disease with a vaccine that's very safe," Dr. Felice Adler of Children's Hospital of Orange County said.
Another parent says they decided to not have her youngest child vaccinated after an older child who was vaccinated was diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum.
"What I do know is that we didn't have an issue until that," parent Christine Christensen said. "And I don't want to place blame, but I do have to make an educated idea in my mind about what it is that could have contributed to what we're dealing with now."
Dr. Adler says there is no evidence linking the measles vaccine to autism.
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