New York mayor urges vaccination

Public health emergency declared to contain measles outbreak in Brooklyn

New York City on Tuesday declared a public health emergency in Brooklyn amid a measles outbreak affecting ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, ordering mandatory vaccinations against the highly contagious disease there.

The city's Mayor Bill de Blasio said it would require unvaccinated individuals living in the Williamsburg section to receive the vaccine as health authorities fight one of the largest measles outbreaks in decades. The mayor said the city would issue violations and possibly fines of $1,000 for those who did not comply.

The order focuses on parts of Williamsburg inhabited by large numbers of Orthodox Jews, many of whom believe vaccinations run counter to Jewish or Talmudic law, leading to low vaccination rates in some communities.

"This is the epicenter of a measles outbreak that is very, very troubling and must be dealt with immediately," de Blasio said at a news conference in Williamsburg. "The measles vaccine works. It is safe, it is effective, it is time-tested."

The city health department ordered all ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in a neighborhood of Brooklyn on Monday to exclude unvaccinated students from classes during the current measles outbreak.

The majority of the cases have been concentrated in Hasidic communities in Williamsburg and Borough Park, Brooklyn. Since Sept 30, the area has recorded 285 measles cases, including 246 children, city officials said at a news conference on Tuesday. Of the 285 cases, 21 people have been hospitalized and five have been admitted to the intensive care unit.

Dr Oxiris Barbot, the New York City health commissioner, said there had been reports of "measles parties" in the area where parents deliberately expose their children to measles so that they become naturally immune after contracting the virus. The children would then show blood immunity and be able to return to school.

The mayor said an estimated 1,800 children in the neighborhood are still unvaccinated, so it was "time to take a more muscular approach".

"We try always to respect religious rights, religious customs, but when it comes to public health, when we see a problem emerge, we have to deal with it aggressively," de Blasio said.

David R. Curry, executive director of the Center for Vaccine Ethics and Policy, told China Daily: "Once your child is exposed and has measles, there is no better convincing argument to parents who may be questioning whether vaccinations work than when they have to come to grips with the fact that their child, because they were unvaccinated, suddenly has a potentially dangerous disease."

There have been 465 measles cases across the US since the start of the year, with 78 new cases in the last week alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday.

In Rockland County, New York, a suburban area northwest of the city, another nine cases were reported, the CDC said, bringing the total number of cases in the area to 167 since the fall. Many of the cases have occurred in Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities in the area.

The CDC linked the outbreaks in New York, Rockland County and New Jersey to people bringing the disease back from Israel, where a large outbreak is occurring.

Measles is highly contagious, infecting up to 90 percent of unvaccinated people who are exposed to it, according to the CDC.

Pneumonia related to measles is the most common cause of deaths attributed to measles. Other complications include encephalitis or brain swelling and premature births.

belindarobinson@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 04/11/2019 page3)