A vaccine is prepared for administration. Health officials are continuing to urge families to vaccinate against measles, mumps and rubella as measles outbreaks have been reported in 11 states, with over 220 cases reported in 2019. Officials emphasized the vaccine is safe and 97 percent effective in preventing disease. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Matthew Lotz)

MARQUETTE — The United States has already had over 200 cases of measles reported in 2019, as outbreaks have been reported in 11 states — in Michigan, a case of measles was just reported Thursday in Oakland County, officials said.

“These outbreaks are entirely preventable because the MMR vaccine has been proven time and again, over decades, to be both safe and highly effective,” Dr. Teresa Frankovich, medical director at the Marquette County Health Department said in a press release. “For people who receive the recommended two doses of vaccine (at 12-15 months and between 4 and 6 years), the vaccine is 97 percent effective in preventing disease.”

Measles is a respiratory virus that typically starts with signs such as a high fever, cough, congestion, and conjunctivitis and is quickly followed by a rash that spreads across the entire body. Children with the disease can become “quite ill,” as they may develop complications including pneumonia and encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain.

The hundreds of measles cases reported this year are in stark contrast to the situation in 2000, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had announced that measles was eliminated in the United States, meaning that there had not been continuous transmission of the disease in over a year within any region of the U.S., Frankovich said.

“This was a remarkable achievement,” a Marquette County Health Department press release states, as prior to 1963, when the measles vaccine was available, around 3 to 4 million people were infected with measles annually.

Of these several million annual cases, around 48,000 people would be hospitalized and 400 to 500 people would die annually, primarily children, officials said. In the present day, around 90,000 children die from measles annually across the globe.

In Marquette County alone, around 3.5 percent of students in kindergarten and seventh grade have vaccination waivers, meaning that they have not been vaccinated, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Marquette County Health Department.

While there are some medical reasons for waiving vaccination, such as a compromised immune system, “medical reasons for declining vaccinations are few,” Frankovich said.

Immunization requirements may be waived for “religious, medical, or other (sometimes referred to as philosophical) reasons,” but “high waiver rates and low vaccination coverage leave children vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases,” according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

However, non-medical waiver rates did drop significantly in the 2015-16 school year because of a change in Michigan’s rules about how parents obtain waivers. Before the rule was changed, parents could pick up a waiver form from schools or print one off the internet and submit it. Now, parents are required to get waivers from the health department, officials said.

Prior to the rule’s implementation, non-medical waiver rates in Marquette County schools were 8 percent. In 2015, the rates sank to 5 percent, then 3 percent in 2016 and 2017, health department officials said.

It’s important to vaccinate because one or two people out of every 1,000 people infected with measles will die — even with the best care modern medicine can offer, Frankovich said.

“The truth is, even with the best of care, people die from measles,” she said.

Vaccination is especially important because there is no medication to treat measles, she said.

“It’s simply supportive care if you become ill and hospitalized,” Frankovich said.

Protecting those who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons — such as immune suppression — or age, as infants typically aren’t vaccinated until 12 months, is also a major reason to get vaccinated if possible, she said.

“I feel like there’s a social certain responsibility that we have to each other,” Frankovich said. “We live in communities, we share resources and environments, our public spaces including our schools. And vaccination not only protects your child and family, it protects your community.”

While there is a “wealth of clear and compelling scientific evidence verifying safety,” the myth about the link between the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR vaccine and autism is false, health department officials emphasized.

The issue largely stems from a 1998 report that suggested a possible link between the onset of behavioral disorders, such as autism and the administration of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine that has since been called an “elaborate fraud” by researchers.

While numerous rigorous, large-scale studies have refuted the study and demonstrated autism rates are no higher in children vaccinated with MMR — including a March 5 study that looked at over 650,000 children over 10 years — it’s difficult to stop the spread of misinformation once its out there, Frankovich said.

“The internet has great potential for providing good information on so many things but i think for many people it’s hard to distinguish the credible information from the bogus information online,” she said. “And I understand that some of that bogus information can be frightening to parents so I think it’s important that they go to credible sources.”

Frankovich recommends the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and local health departments as resources for parents with questions for vaccinations.