Why Is Germany So Calm About Its Measles Outbreak? The Atlantic [View all]

[KellyW]

Last edited Tue Feb 10, 2015, 11:39 PM - Edit history (2)

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/germany-measles-outbreak/385305/

edited for fair use...
"If the Great American Measles Outbreak of 2015 were to have a watchword, it would probably be "selfish." As in, those "boneheaded," "irresponsible" parents whom experts are calling "incredibly selfish" for choosing not to get their children vaccinated for measles."

The measles outbreak in Germany is "about 10 times worse than the one in the United States in January, relative to the total population.

There appear to be a number of reasons for the relative calm. The first is that Germany has had its recent share of serious outbreaks, all of which were eventually brought to heel.

Another reason is that Germany has a pretty steady vaccination rate of 95 percent (the American rate is about 91 percent). Moreover, half of the cases reported in Germany during the past few months are adults who may have fallen into an immunization gap that started in the 1970s."
...end selected quotes from the Atlantic article.

I think that a more careful study of the Disney outbreak may reveal that the immunization gap had more to do with chain of transmission than the "irresponsible parents". Over half of the cases are adults. And 5 of the early transmitters were the park employees. The "gap" is that the single dose MMR vaccine that more people received before 2000 has not been effective at creating life-long immunity.

For everyone yelling about "irresponsible anti vac-ers parents", have you check your own Measles vaccine status?
I asked a colleague of mine who is an Army reservist about the vaccines that he is required to have and he said that his status had recently and suddenly gone from green to red and he was being asked to show proof that he had sufficient MMR vaccination.

Another story from Germany, I think shows the true professional approach to this public health problem:
http://www.dw.de/europe-is-learning-to-fear-ebola-while-refusing-to-vaccinate-against-measles/a-17881015

"In our experience, the younger the child, the more worried the parents are about vaccinating," Dr Knöbl says. "But if you accept their fears and give them a bit of time, most of them change their mind."

"In 2013, the then German health minister Daniel Bahr raised the idea of mandatory vaccination as a way of increasing the measles vaccination rate.

But Dr Günter Pfaff, the chief epidemiologist at the Baden-Württemberg State Health Authority isn't convinced that such measures would work in Germany.

"We probably would have to use more energy to fight against opposition to mandatory vaccination than we could use to convince people that vaccination is good, and that it would be a benefit for their children," he says from his office in Stuttgart."