PORT ANGELES — Eighty-nine percent of students in Port Angeles schools have complete immunity to measles, whooping cough and other communicable diseases, according to the state Department of Health.
That drops to 56 percent in Port Townsend School District, the department’s figures compiled for June 2014 say.
Furthermore, school districts’ figures don’t “add up” when you subtract students who have been exempted from vaccinations from each district’s total students to get the number of students who have complete immunity.
For instance, Port Angeles listed 3,594 total students, of whom 3,211 had complete immunizations, a difference of 383.
But the district lists only 249 students as having exemptions, which seems to leave 134 students incompletely immunized or unreported.
Port Townsend’s numbers are even further out of whack: Of 1,253 students, 701 were exempt for 2014, but only 196 claimed personal, medical or religious exemptions, an apparent anomaly of 505 students.
No enforcement
State Department of Health officials blame the discrepancy on a law that, although it requires schools to report immunizations and exemptions, has no enforcement provision.
The “missing” number may reflect students listed as “conditional” — working toward complete immunization — and students who are “what we call out of compliance,” said Paul Throne of the Department of Health.
These are students who furnished their schools with neither certificates of immunization nor proper claims of exemption, said Throne, manager for health promotion and communication in the office of immunization.
Although measles outbreaks in Port Angeles and elsewhere have attracted lots of attention, only seven cases had been confirmed in the state as of Friday.
That compares with 32 students statewide in 2014, Throne said, although the “measles season” usually runs from March through July.
Seventh in state
A Whatcom County man was the seventh person in the state to get the measles this year, Health Department spokesman Donn Moyer said.
The man was exposed while visiting a contagious relative in California.
Six other people in the state have contracted measles this year: four people in Clallam County and two in Grays Harbor County.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 150 people across the United States have gotten measles this year.
The measles outbreaks have had a positive side, Throne said, in that they have produced “a groundswell of support for making it more limited how many kinds of exemptions parents can have.”
Parents in Washington and 47 other states can claim medical or religious reasons not to have their children vaccinated.
But Washington also is one of 20 states that allows a vague “personal” exemption that by far is the most popular among parents seeking to avoid their children’s getting shots.
A bill co-sponsored by 24th District state Rep. Steve Tharinger would eliminate the “personal” or “philosophical” exemption.
It has made its way from the Legislature’s state Health Care Committee and to the House Rules Committee as of Friday, Tharinger said.
Measles is not the only ailment that once was common among schoolchildren but thought to be almost extinct in recent years thanks to widespread required immunizations.
Other immunizations
Students also can be immunized against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), mumps, rubella (German measles), tetanus (lockjaw), varicella (chickenpox), hepatitis B and polio.
While exemption rates vary from district to district, they are highest for the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella; for hepatitis B; and for polio.
School districts
Here are breakdowns of North Olympic Peninsula school districts with their total enrollments, numbers of completely immunized students and exemptions.
For details, including percentages of exemptions by type, visit http://tinyurl.com/PDN-www-doh-immunizations.
■ Brinnon: 35 students, 22 completely immunized, three exempt.
■ Cape Flattery: 117 students, 101 completely immunized, eight exempt.
■ Chimacum: 1,168 students, 845 completely immunized, 177 exempt.
■ Crescent: 223 students, 177 completely immunized, 26 exempt.
■ Lake Quinault: 163 students, 147 completely immunized, four exempt.
■ Port Angeles: 3,594 students, 3,211 completely immunized, 249 exempt.
■ Port Townsend: 1,253 students, 701 completely immunized, 196 exempt.
■ Queets-Clearwater: 22 students, 14 completely immunized, zero exempt.
■ Quilcene: 205 students, 199 completely immunized, six exempt.
■ Quillayute Valley: 1,171 students, 943 completely immunized, 19 exempt.
■ Sequim: 2,865 students, 2,380 completely immunized, 270 exempt.
■ Tahola: 183 students, 176 completely immunized, one exempt.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
