Measles Update -- Marin Cases; State Lawmaker to Introduce Vaccine Bill

Two unvaccinated Marin children have been confirmed to have measles, county health officials announced Thursday night in an advisory sent to all Marin County clinicians.

Dr. Matt Willis, Marin Health Officer, told the Marin Independent Journal that the two children were members of the same family and that they had become infected outside the county. The children are of school age, Willis added, but no other unvaccinated children would be barred from attending school.

More from the Independent-Journal:

"These were two children who were out of school well before and throughout any infectious period," Willis said. "The infectious period for measles is usually around eight days."

For this reason, the protocol of excluding unvaccinated children will not be observed, Willis said.

Willis said the two children "have been safely isolated from the community, and will remain isolated for the next three weeks. The health department is in regular contact with the family."

The children were out of the county for part of that interval and were not in direct contact with anyone in the community, Willis said. "We are taking appropriate measures to protect the community against further spread," he said.

Carl Krawitt, the Marin father of a child who cannot be vaccinated because he is recovering from cancer treatment, said he is "sorry for children who are sick and hope they heal fast." Krawitt has been advocating for changes in policy that would require schools to bar unvaccinated children from school, until they are immunized.

Marin is the 10th California county to see measles cases in the outbreak that started in connection to Disneyland in December. The new cases bring the statewide total in the current outbreak to 81.

New Law to be Introduced

The new cases come against a backdrop of a growing debate about California's use of the "personal belief exemption" which allows parents to opt-out of vaccines on behalf of their children. The statewide PBE rate is 2.5 percent, but in many areas the rates are significantly higher. Marin county's PBE rate is 6.45 percent; some rural Northern California counties are higher still. Nevada County's PBE rate is 21.55 percent.

Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) says he will introduce a bill Friday that would require schools to notify parents of its immunization rates. They would also need to include a "reference rate," he said, that would tell parents what public health officials say the rate of vaccination should be to protect people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

"It's important to keep families informed of things their child may be at risk of at their school," Pan, who is also a pediatrician, said.

In addition, Pan said he wants to look at tightening the personal belief exemption. Only a minority of states allow a personal belief exemption. "Many other states have much stricter rules," Pan told me. "There are many states where you can only get exempted if you have a medical reason, or you can demonstrate a strong religious reason."

New York is one such state, and Pan said he plans to see if that approach might be a "more appropriate model" for California.

"We need to look at what we need to do here in California," he said. "We certainly understand people have different beliefs, but we also need children to be safe in their schools."

Krawitt, who has worried about the PBE rate in Marin and more broadly, was enthusiastic to hear of Pan's ideas. He said he and his wife would like to see a bill, but "we would likely endorse it."