When the epidemic scientist Sofia New tries to assess the extent of Montana’s ability to ward off the spread of measles throughout the United States, she has no data to work with it.
A Federal survey after another Last year, it showed that more than 86 % of Montana members recently received measles, mumps and immunity. This number has decreased in recent years, according to previous investigative studies, and The newcomer, associate professor At the University of Montana, the last “much lower” rate said 95 % ideal to protect society against very infectious diseases.
But besides this estimate at the state level, it is difficult to obtain information about the local and regional immunization trends in Montana. State officials no longer collect vaccination reports collected from schools and child care centers, or data on medical and religious exemptions. The Republican Ruler’s administration arrested Greg Gianfurt this practice after its signing 2021 bill Hit the condition.
The last translated reports of the academic year 2018-19 were before Covid-19 disorders. Without information, the newcomer said, local and government officials have struggled to prevent vaccine from spreading.
She said: “The state’s averages are useful, but the drilling is really to the level of boycott or the smaller geographical levels is in fact what we need to assess the risk of disease outbreaks.”
Montana is the only country that no longer collects immunization reports from local schools, creating a data gap for diseases control and prevention centers. The lack of information also affects the city’s health and boycott officials who may not have their data sharing agreements with educational areas.
Supporters of Management 2021 to stop collecting data said they were aiming to protect personal information and medical records that could not be identified and did not intend to cancel the fully reporting system.
“I was not trying to bomb the regime. I was just trying to make sure to respect their privacy,” said Jennifer Carlson, a former Republican legislator and a sponsor of the state.
The legislators in the state They think about a bill To back down from the 2021 policy, while maintaining privacy protection for individual student records. After stopping earlier in this session, democracy is bound HB 364 He advanced in March with the support of the two parties, and cleared the House of Representatives with a vote 66-31.
The draft law, sponsored by democracy Representative Melody CaninghamHe also received support from the Ministry of Governmental Health, an agency within the Gianphport administration.
republican Representative John Fitzbathrick He said he believed the draft law is a good policy for the state.
“It is important that public health authorities enjoy access to total information so that they can track the place where vaccines are not used,” he said.
Montana did not confirm the case of measles Since 1990. But with more than one 480 cases reported In all parts of Texas, New Mexico, and 17 other states, one child who died due to illness, and another death was under investigation, and the new expatriate said that it and other pathologists “on the edge of the abyss” about Montana’s defenses. Three cases were confirmed in March, south of Calgary, in the Canadian province of Alberta, which is partner with the border with Montana.
“I would like to say that when vaccination rates decrease in a society, it is not a matter of what. It is a matter of when the measles will come, because it is very infectious,” said David Higgins, a pediatrician and researcher on the University of Colorado Ancerots.
Higgins used to work in Montana when the law that requests schools and state officials was still valid. He said he was disappointed in the decline 2021, given how the outbreaks of the outbreaks began at the hyperbial level.
“When community leaders do not have a good understanding of the local level of vaccination and the immunity of society, this is a great challenge,” said Higgins. “They love without easily available this data.”
Measles is one of the most infectious diseases in the world, According to the World Health OrganizationMore than Covid. It can be very dangerous, especially for infants and children under the age of 5 and who have not completed the dose vaccination chain. Infectious molecules can relate to the air and surfaces for up to two hours. People with the virus can spread it up to four days before they start showing symptoms.
“If we reach the measles issue to Montana, especially if it reaches a society with low coverage of vaccination, we will see a spread like a multi -week period or even multiple months.” “So anyone who is not immunized can get sick simply by going to a school, store or house where there was a measuring person recently.”
Infection can have short -term and long -term consequences for people who are not immunized, including encephalitis, pneumonia, deafness, blindness and death. State and community health departments announced free MMR vaccines in clinics throughout the state for anyone who needed them.
Although HB 364 aims to increase data collection, other vaccines measures in the state legislative council are advancing that would facilitate children to exempt the standard vaccinations required to enroll in schools or child care centers.
A recent version of SB 474And, which has been modified several times, would create an exemption of “informed approval” in which one of the parents or the guardian of schools can reject children of school age without mentioning a reason.
Supporters of the draft law said that some families are struggling to receive exemptions based on religious beliefs or medical causes and want a wider elasticity in withdrawing from the required vaccinations against measles and other infectious diseases, such as whooping cough. According to the recent Montana reports, from the 198-19 academic year, there were about 3 % of children in public schools religious or medical exemption.
SB 474 will also strike another part of the state law that allows schools and is interested today for the Bahrain of Children because they are not imprisoned, and it is an exemption included in Law 2021 aimed at protecting unjust people from discrimination. The legislator who sponsors the current bill, which is called the motivation for schools and is interested in “deviation” in the Montana Law.
“There is no reason for discrimination based on the state of the vaccine,” Al -Jumhouri Senator Daniel Emery He said during a discussion in March about the Senate Hall.
Emirish and others framing the draft law as enabling individual decisions about vaccinations based on the quality of the father’s knowledge.
“The vaccines are very effective,” Emirish said. “If you are concerned about unacceptable children, you have an option to make your child a vaccine to protect them in any way you want. This bill is about the choice.”
During the discussion, opponents of the draft law claimed that the general fortification rate in Montana decreases, the more the exposure of many members of society, including those who, due to age or medical issues, cannot be vaccinated.
Senator Cora NewmanDemocrat, who represents Bouzmann, said that the Montenen, who have been immunized, including children, are working “shields” against infectious diseases such as measles and population coughing – whooping cough. But if vaccination rates continue to decrease, this protection will only be hit.
“We have just seen a child dying from measles [in Texas]. It will continue, and it will be scary. “It will be fatal. It looks like a luxury at the moment. We can choose. It will not be if we continue this path,” Newman said.
The draft law approved the state in the state by voting 28-21. He is now looking at home.