Measles in court

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Measles in court Health is facing parents opposed to vaccination VALME CORTES - Granada - 15/11/2010
Voluntary and legitimate decision of a group of parents not to inoculate the MMR (measles, rubella and mumps) to their children and students of a public school district has led Granada's Albaicín an unusual reaction of the Andalusian Health System itself. The measles outbreak detected in that school and it has already affected 23 people may be increasing and the Board warns that failure to reach the level of vaccination required to cut the transmission, take the case to court.
The law on special measures in public health does not enable the health authority to go further. That vaccine is voluntary and although there may be a danger to the health of the population, measures involving deprivation or restriction of liberty or other fundamental right requiring judicial authorization or ratification. The chief judge of Granada, Francisco Sánchez Gálvez, explains in general terms only if there is a "conflict of interest" and show that parents do not properly exercise authority over children a judge could intervene.
Health has aired the warning, but beware of taking the letter out. "It would extraordinary measure to judge if the epidemic progressed at an alarming rate," says the head of Public Health in Granada, Isabel Marín. The problem is that the outbreak "is already in the city." Of the 23 affected, two are adults. To date, three hospitalized.
Experts maintain that the anti-vaccination movement is not widespread in Spain, unlike other countries like the UK, but this case has generated controversy after crashing individual liberty collective benefit. Ideological reasons or the option of using natural methods to protect their children's immune systems are the reasons that parents wield some of the anti-vaccination. Although vaccination coverage in children under two years is 97% in Andalusia, the problem is if they match too many unvaccinated people in a given geographical area. "In that case, would endanger the herd immunity," argued Maria del Mar Garcia, a pediatrician and specialist in the Andalusian School of Public Health. Like other experts, believes that what happened to the flu vaccine or the human papilloma "have helped to strengthen the anti-vaccinia."
In the United Kingdom occurred in the last decade a decline in vaccination rates after the 1998 publication of a study that linked the vaccine with illnesses such as autism. The medical journal The Lancet had to retire this year the report of your files and even apologized for publication.
In Granada capital, the vaccine coverage reaches 90% health so do not think the outbreak is explosive, but expected more cases. "It's a potentially serious and more dangerous for infants, chronically ill adults and is compounded by between 5% and 15% of cases," notes Garcia.