More Mid-Missouri parents are opting out of vaccinating their children at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital, while other medical facilities are seeing vaccination recommendations mostly followed, according to local pediatricians.
Dr. Brian Conley, a pediatrician from St. Mary's, said he has noticed more parents not adhering to his medical advice and not vaccinating their children.
"I think these people have never seen a case of polio before," Conley said. "We are seeing more people refusing vaccines and going on a delayed schedule for vaccines. Sometimes parents can't really describe why they are doing that. Sometimes it is something they have read on the Internet."
Conley said one reason parents sometimes opt out of vaccines for their children is for medical purposes. One of his young patients had a heart transplant and cannot take the chicken pox vaccine. Other reasons he cited are philosophical or religious purposes, including those who think vaccines are linked to autism or those who put more stock into homeopathic healing.
Pediatrician Dr. Douglas Boudreau of Capital Region Medical Center said parents' opting not to vaccinate their children occurs occasionally in his practice. He mentioned that the height of the anti-vaccination trend at CRMC was about five years ago, and that he hopes the public is realizing the truth about the safety of vaccinations.
The rate of non-vaccinated students from religious exemptions in Cole County rose 0.04 percent for the 2013-14 school year, according to data from the Department of Health and Senior Services. However, the rate rose to the same as it was for the 2011-12 school year, meaning this could be normal statistical fluctuation and not a growing trend. The data to confirm a trend would have to be from multiple decades of school years, and the DHSS is calculating this at the moment, but the information was not available at press time, Hobart said.
Furthermore, the data was taken from students who reside in Cole County, not those who attend a school in the county. The students without vaccinations due to medical exemptions also fluctuated in the last three school years as well, going up 5 percent and then down 4 percent.
Boudreau noted the most common misconception about vaccines is about how a child's immune system works. Many concerned parents think that the more vaccines a child has in a doctor's visit the weaker it will make his or her immune system, but that is not how the immune system works, he said - the vaccines contain only tiny fragments of viruses and bacteria that actually strengthen a child's immune system when they are exposed to them.
The Cole County Health Department (CCHD) provides vaccines and occasionally gets parents who are apprehensive about vaccinating children, but most change their minds after talking with health care workers, said Jessi Kempker, CCHD immunization coordinator.
She added that most people have made their minds up to get the vaccine before they get to the CCHD, so she has not been able to notice any trends in vaccination preferences. The most common vaccine people have questions about is the flu shot, she said.
There have been no cases of the measles reported in Cole County, or in Missouri, this year. However, in 2014 there were 27 cases, said Ryan Hobart of the DHSS.
A since-debunked 1998 study helped fuel an anti-vaccine sentiment. Published in British journal "The Lancent," the study suggested a combined vaccination of measles, mumps and rubella was linked to autism.
The journal since retracted the story, and the main author, a British doctor, was stripped of his license.
Still, some parents are skittish of vaccines, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend vaccinating children and state that the measles vaccine is safe and has no link to autism.