OLYMPIA — State Rep. Steve Tharinger has signed onto a bill to end parents’ permission to opt out of vaccinating from measles and other diseases the children they send to school.
House Bill 2009 was introduced Wednesday, three days after a middle-aged man was diagnosed with measles at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.
The legislation echoes a bill introduced the same day by legislators in California, where an outbreak of measles was traced to Disneyland in late December.
Tharinger, a Democrat from Dungeness who represents the 24th Legislative District — which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County — is one of 11 co-sponsors of the bill introduced by Rep. June Robinson, a Democrat from Everett, that would cancel vaccination exemptions for personal or religious beliefs.
Both Clallam and Jefferson counties lag behind statewide rates for vaccinating children.
In Clallam County, according to statistics for 2011-12, the most recent year available for the North Olympic Peninsula, 80.3 percent of kindergartners had complete immunizations.
In Jefferson County for the same year, 47.5 percent of kindergartners were completely immunized.
That compared with a statewide figure of 84.6 percent.
From the previous period that was measured — 1998-99 — those figures had slipped from 92.1 percent in Clallam County, 73 percent in Jefferson County and 88.5 percent statewide, decreases of 13 percent, 35 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Washington is among 20 states that allow personal exemptions and among 48 that allow religious exemptions.
Current state law allows parents to send their children to public school without being vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella, among other diseases, if it is against their religious beliefs or they have philosophical or personal objections to immunizing their children.
They also must show statements signed by health care practitioners saying they have been informed about immunization, or they can demonstrate membership in religious groups whose beliefs or teachings preclude health care practitioners from providing medical treatment to children.
Exceptions for medical reasons also are permitted.
Robinson, who works for Public Health Seattle-King County, told The Associated Press the philosophical exemption “just makes it too easy for parents to not think about the effect that they’re having on the community.”
“I think people really need a legitimate reason to send their kid to school and not have them vaccinated,” she said.
“They’re putting the rest of the school, the rest of the community, at risk by doing that.”
Rep. Eileen Cody, a Democrat from Seattle, said the bill was filed close to a cutoff deadline but that she hoped she could schedule a public hearing by the House Health Care & Wellness Committee she chairs.
In 2011-12, 7 percent of kindergartners’ parents in Clallam County claimed exemptions from vaccinations, as did 9.5 percent in Jefferson County and 4.5 percent statewide.
In Clallam County, exemptions had risen from 2.7 percent in 1998-99 (a 159 percent increase) but had fallen from 10.9 percent in Jefferson County (a 13 percent decrease). Exemptions statewide stayed level.
For children 19 to 35 months old in Clallam County, 44 percent had complete immunizations in 2010, the most recent year available for regional statistics; in Jefferson County, the number was 48 percent; statewide, 50 percent.
Those rates were up from 43 percent in Clallam County in 2008, 38 percent in Jefferson County and 42 percent statewide.
By comparison, 41 percent of adults in both Clallam and Jefferson counties were vaccinated against influenza in 2009-10.
Statewide, 39 percent received immunizations. That rate stayed level from 2003 in Clallam County but rose from 36 percent in Jefferson County and from 35 percent statewide.
These figures came from the Clallam County Community Health Status Assessment published in December 2012.
It can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-CHSassessment2012.
Measles is one of the most contagious viral diseases known, with more than 90 percent of susceptible people contracting it after exposure, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is spread mostly by coughing and sneezing or from touching a surface where the virus is present and then touching the nose, eyes or mouth.
The virus can live on a surface or hang in the air for as long as two hours after an infected person has coughed or sneezed, according to the CDC.
Deaths are rare in developed countries. More common complications include pneumonia, encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and deafness.
Pregnant women who get the measles may give birth prematurely or deliver low-birth-weight babies, according to the CDC.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.