LOS ANGELES — A major measles outbreak traced to Disneyland has brought criticism down on the small but vocal movement among parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children.
In a rash of cases that public health officials are rushing to contain, at least 70 people in six states and Mexico have fallen ill since mid-December, most of them from California. The vast majority of those who got sick had not gotten the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.
While still a scourge in many corners of the world, measles has been all but eradicated in the U.S. since 2000 because of vaccinations. But the virus has made a comeback in recent years, in part because of people obtaining personal-belief exemptions from rules that say children must get their shots to enroll in school.
Others have delayed getting their children vaccinated because they believe now-discredited research linking the measles vaccine to autism.
“Some people are just incredibly selfish” by skipping shots, said Dr. James Cherry, a pediatric disease expert at the University of California-Los Angeles.
Barbara Loe Fisher, director of the National Vaccine Information Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit that favors letting parents decide whether to vaccinate, said, “I don’t think it’s wise or responsible to blame” unvaccinated people for the Disney outbreak. She noted that a small number of those stricken had been fully vaccinated.
Health authorities think the outbreak was triggered by a measles-stricken visitor to one of the Disney parks who brought the virus from abroad last month.
The infected have ranged from 7 months to 70 years old, including five Disneyland workers.
In the past five years, the percentage of kindergartners in California who are up to date on all vaccinations has held steady from 90.7 percent in the 2010-11 school year to 90.4 percent in 2014-15. But there are some wealthy communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties and in northern California with double-digit vaccination exemption rates.
