Israel health officials have been alerted to cases of measles that have been diagnosed in the northern city of Tzefas, primarily in the chareidi community.
According to reports, the Health Ministry received reports of cases, most among chareidi children, who have since been in contact with members of the population. In the city’s Rebecca Ziv Hospital, a 7-year-old chareidi boy was admitted due to the seriousness of his condition. He remains in isolation.
Health officials feel that in all likelihood, these cases could have been avoided in the parents had their children vaccinated as recommended by the ministry. The ministry is now calling on the non-vaccinated population to expeditiously have their children vaccinated as the illness is spreading. Children from 1-to-6-years-old will receive one dose and from six upward, two doses of the vaccine.
“We hope that the leaders of the communities will send a strong message on the subject, and there is no reason for this disease to make a comeback,” says a senior health official in Tzefas.
As for the measles symptoms and the risk of this disease, the head of the Pediatric Department at Ziv Prof. Anthony Luder explains: “Measles causes immediate and delayed complications, which are high fever lasting between one and two weeks, respiratory problems, pneumonia, and eye inflammation all over the body.”
“The disease can develop into oxygen failure and death, and later complications, sometimes years after the disease, is a degeneration of the brain that causes untreated dementia,” the professor emphasizes.
“Parents must follow the instructions of the Ministry of Health and the Israeli and International Medical Association, to vaccinate against measles at the age of one year, and if the children were not vaccinated in time, to go to the HMOs and vaccinate, parents should not take so much responsibility for the fate and health of their children.”
Professor Luder also noted that in 1994, anti-vaccine activist Dr. Andrew Wakesfield published a fraudulent paper claiming a link between the administration of the MMR vaccine and autism. The doctor’s license to practice medicine was revoked. There are still parents who do not vaccinate their children despite the danger of contracting the illness.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
can following daas toreh have bad outcomes? is that possible? is that what you are implying??
I like the term “anti-vaxxer”. That way I can sound bad when I question the requirement for a 30+ year old married grad student needing a Meningitus vaccine or a Hep C vaccine to attend a secular university.
1. it’s just troubling that people will leave children at unnecessary risk. There is no religious reason not to vaccinate, and lots of reasons to vaccinate. Sad.
2. Slight correction: Wakefield’s article was from 1998, not 1994.
3. There is no vaccine against hepatitis C. We have a hepatitis B and A vaccine. The reason to want people to be protected against it and meningitis when they go to university is that university environment has a risk of those. And it’s totally fair to ask why, and ask questions about vaccines. That does not make you anti-vaccine. Rejecting the evidence on those things (and I don’t have any reason to think you do) does.