Michigan's chief medical executive, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, told Michigan Public she's worried about the state's declining vaccination rates.
Ten children in Michigan have died of flu-related illness this flu season — more than any year since pediatric flu cases have been tracked. The flu vaccine reduces the risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death.
And there have been nine cases of measles in the state. Two doses of the measles vaccine reduces the risk of contracting measles at all by 97%.
Bagdasarian says measles was considered eliminated in the U.S. 25 years ago. She says its resurgence is the "canary in the coalmine."
"If we continue to see this downward trend, I think we could see a reemergence of mumps and rubella and diptheria," she said. "That's because the MMR vaccine also protects against mumps and rubella. The pertussis vaccine is usually combined with protection against diphtheria. We have an effective polio vaccine. These vaccines are incredibly safe, very well studied, and the data supports them as being life-saving vaccines."
Bagdasarian said she encourages people to talk with their doctors and not rely on the internet for information about vaccines. She acknowledged some people may have made up their minds against vaccines, no matter what science or data says.
"But there are a lots of people who aren't sure and they've heard some information that concerns them. So I think that we in the public health community have to be really open to having that conversation," Bagdasarian said. "So for me, I just talk about how I feel comfortable not only getting these vaccines myself, but I make sure my child has had all of these vaccines. That my husband, my mom, the people that I care about most in the world have had all the recommended vaccines."
Bagdasarian warned that Michigan isn't past the threat of measles outbreaks yet this year; West Texas is still having a big outbreak and there are cases still in Ontario. She said the state's public health system will remain on high alert for any cases that appear to try to prevent a big outbreak here.
