SPRINGFIELD (AP) - Although the numbers are small, more parents over the past few years are exempting their children from vaccinations in Springfield Public Schools, according to one school official,
"Yes, there is a trend," says Jean Grabeel, health services coordinator with Springfield Public Schools, told the Springfield News-Leader. "We have over 25,000 students. It is not statistically significant as far as numbers go."
Just under 2 percent of SPS students annually are exempted by a parent or guardian from at least one vaccination shot, according to figures from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
That number has been creeping up in recent years, Grabeel said.
State figures show that in the 2011-12 school year there were 2,048 students exempted by their parents. The number rose to 2,213 in 2012-13; 2,116 for 2013-14; and rose to 2,222 this fall.
Children receive multiple vaccinations from infancy through eighth grade.
State guidelines offer only two permitted exemptions: religious or medical.
All 50 states require vaccination of school-age children. But all 50 provide exemptions. Missouri is one of 48 states that allow an exemption based on religious beliefs.
A religious exemption, for example, could be due to the parents' views on how to treat illnesses. A medical exemption, for instance, could be for a child fighting cancer whose immune system is weakened.
Parents could also claim a "religious" exemption when their real reason is they don't believe vaccines are efficient or, in some cases, believe they could be harmful.
In 2013 there were 31 Greene County residents who came down with whooping cough, a major increase. For the four prior years the combined total was 42.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is considered a disease that is largely prevented by vaccinations.
So far in 2014, the number of whooping cough cases is down, with only seven confirmed cases and two possible cases.
Whooping cough is a bacterial infection of the respiratory system characterized by severe coughing spells which can end in a "whooping" sound.
The disease mainly affects infants younger than 6 months and children 11 to 18 years old whose immunity has started to fade, according to the website kidshealth.org.
Before there was a whooping-cough vaccine, the disease killed 5,000 to 10,000 people annually in the U.S. The vaccine was first used widely in the 1940s. It has reduced annual deaths to fewer than 30.
Kendra Findley investigates cases where Greene County residents have illnesses like whooping cough that can be prevented by vaccination.
She is the administrator of community health and epidemiology for the Springfield-Green County Health Department and is troubled by the 31 cases of whooping cough last year.
"Pertussis should be a disease that we should not have to deal with on a regular basis," she says.
Her research shows that in most cases the people ill were not vaccinated. She could not provide an age breakdown for the 31 whooping cough cases in 2013.
But they are not exclusively due to lack of vaccination.
Adults who were vaccinated as children can also come down with the disease. That's why they should get a whooping cough booster shot, she says, particularly those who will be near babies.
A grandparent, for example, can be susceptible to the disease and easily spread it to an infant that has not yet received a first whooping cough vaccination, which comes at 2 months.
Rita Shreffler, 57, of Nixa, is skeptical of a vaccine regimen that she says requires a child to receive 49 shots by age 6.
Shreffler is the former president of the National Autism Association and the current editor of "Autism File."
"I am not anti-vaccine," she says. "A lot of us feel that vaccines should be as safe as possible. ... But compare the amount of vaccines children receive today to the handful I received as a child."
Shreffler recalls years ago her children, now 22 and 21, each received six vaccination shots on the same day. Her son has Asperger syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder, and Tourette syndrome. Her daughter is autistic.
"I do think that the schedule is just too aggressive for any young child," Shreffler said. "There is a lowest-and-slowest approach."
Shreffler says that in her role as editor of "Autism File" she talks to parents worldwide who have questions about vaccinations.
"I tell them to go online and read the pros and cons and decide for yourself," she says. "I have never told anyone to not get a vaccine. I urge them to do the research."
Actually, that's part of the problem, says Dr. Jim Blaine, a family practitioner working at Ozarks Technical Community College. People are researching vaccinations online and becoming misinformed, he says.
"The internet has fueled this somewhat," he says. "Now you get on there and blog and tell stories about how your child is autistic."
Over the years, different vaccinations have been added to the required regimen of shots, said Dr. Laura Waters, a pediatrician. That's because there is a need and because drug companies have responded to that need - provided there is a large enough market for the vaccine, she said.
In many cases, she said, people critical of vaccinations don't recall the physical devastation once caused by diseases such as polio and whooping cough.
"I think that we have been very lucky in that we live in the United States," she said. "We have had the ability to have our children vaccinated against diseases that have either injured or killed people.
"And until you have seen a child on a ventilator in the ICU because of pertussis you don't make that connection of how good and efficient those vaccines are in terms of keeping our kids safe."