Anti-vaxxers blamed for chickenpox outbreak

A North Carolina school considered a stronghold of the anti-vaccination movement is now at the center of the state’s largest chickenpox outbreak in at least two decades.

Thirty-six students at the Asheville Waldorf School have contracted the varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox — making the outbreak the largest in the state since a vaccination for the itchy illness hit the market in 1995, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.

The Asheville school has 152 students ranging from nursery age to sixth-graders, and the majority of them — 110 — have not received the chickenpox vaccine for religious reasons.

For the 2017-2018 school year, Asheville Waldorf had the state’s third-highest rate for vaccination exemptions, according to statistics with North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, which tracks the number of kindergartners whose parents file for a religious exemption.

That year, 19 of 28 enrolled kindergartners had an exemption from at least one vaccination required by the state to attend school.

The two schools that had the highest exemption rates in the state are also private and had 100 percent exemption rates. One school only had one kindergartner while the other had two.

Health officials warned that high rates of unvaccinated children can be dangerous.

“The thing people need to understand is that when you have pockets of unvaccinated people, they serve as reservoirs for disease,” said DHHS nurse Susan Sullivan.

Asheville Waldorf didn’t respond to questions from the Citizen Times.

Buncombe County, where the school is located, has historically dealt with high vaccine exemption rates, thanks to the growing concern among parents that inoculations have worse side effects than the actual diseases they prevent.

“What’s the big deal with chickenpox? There is no big deal,” Asheville resident Amy Gordon told the Citizen Times.

Before the vaccine became readily available, the childhood disease affected 4 million people a year, including 10,600 who required hospitalization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. As many as 150 deaths were reported each year.

The varicella vaccine requires two doses and is about 90 percent effective in preventing chickenpox. Those who are vaccinated can still get the disease, but usually with much milder symptoms.

“When you get vaccinated, you protect yourself and others in your community,” the CDC said. “This is especially important for people who cannot get vaccinated, such as those with weakened immune systems or pregnant women.”

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