Vaccine skeptics risk health of public, researchers say
SAN FRANCISCO - More parents are deciding not to have children vaccinated with all the shots health officials recommend, endangering the children and fostering disease outbreaks, a study said.
Although all states require schoolchildren to be vaccinated, 21 states allow parents to exempt their children for personal reasons.
Clusters of unvaccinated children are expanding in these states, leading to outbreaks of measles and pertussis, or whooping cough, according to the analysis yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The number of mandated vaccinations has increased in recent years so children now get as many as 33 inoculations, said Lance Rodewald of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Local clusters of unvaccinated youngsters are a mounting concern, he said. 