Why I’m so worried about measles outbreaks as a South Carolina doctor — and you should be, too | Opinion

As a pediatrician in Columbia with over 30 years of experience, I have seen the worst of what infectious diseases can do.

I have seen children die from meningitis, pertussis and the flu. I have seen children become deaf and develop seizure disorders from pneumococcal meningitis

I have not seen a child with measles or polio because the measles and polio vaccines are incredibly effective. I hope never to see those diseases.

I have been in practice long enough to know that vaccines are among the most successful public health innovations of all time. But as vaccination rates decrease, vaccine preventable disease outbreaks occur.

A prime example is the current measles outbreak in west Texas and New Mexico. As of Feb. 19, there were at least 66 cases identified. Sixty were completely unvaccinated. Four had received at least one dose of vaccine and two had an unknown vaccine status. Thirteen had been hospitalized.

The outbreak is expected to continue. The main county involved had an 18% kindergarten vaccine exemption rate in 2023-2024. That is not a coincidence.

Vaccines go through a rigorous process of testing, clinical trials and review during development with robust safety surveillance after approval. Contrary to misinformation on social media, vaccines are never simply released without appropriate testing for safety and efficacy.

Yet we are at a crossroads in public health right now in South Carolina and nationwide.

Unfortunately, with the new administration and new leadership in the Department of Health and Human Services, we have entered a twilight zone where scientific studies are treated with far less respect than social media posts fueled by misinformation and conspiracy theories. I see the results in my office every day. Parents are questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines and considering vaccine refusal because they don’t know who or what to believe. The pipeline of vaccine misinformation has never flowed so quickly, leading to a level of distrust never seen before.

One of my greatest fears is that I might not recognize that a child in my office has measles.

Many of my colleagues share this fear. Among children with close exposure to measles who are not immunized (including infants too young to be immunized), approximately 90% will catch the disease and up to 40% may be hospitalized, with children under 5 years old at greatest risk. For every 1,000 children with measles under the age of 5, approximately one to three will die. Measles is a very serious disease. And it is not the only one for parents and children to worry about. Outbreaks of meningitis, whooping cough and varicella could be right around the corner.

So what can we do to decrease the risk of a catastrophic explosion of vaccine-preventable illnesses? We are not powerless.

We can take steps to minimize the damage and to protect children. Pediatricians and family physicians play an active role in disseminating credible, data-based information and scientific resources. Families can reach out to their trusted medical providers and ask questions about vaccine safety and efficacy. Families and physicians together must demand that accurate, research-based information be allowed to be published and disseminated by credible resources such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

We are not powerless to stop the very predictable surge in vaccine-preventable illnesses that will occur with a significant drop in vaccination rates in South Carolina and nationwide. But once the genie is out of the bottle, it will become much harder if not impossible to put it back in and stem the tide of outbreaks.

So please talk to your pediatrician or family physician if you have questions about vaccines. Please look to credible resources for information. Please do not rely on social media for your health care information and do not trust those who deal in misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories. The health of our state and our nation depends upon it.

Deborah Greenhouse is a Columbia pediatrician and past president of the South Carolina chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.