An anti-vaccination 'hotspot' near Portland declears an emergency over measles outbreak
A quickly escalating measles outbreak around Portland,Oregon,has led health officials in nearby Clark Country,Washigton,to declear a public health emergency.
At the beginning of last week,there were only a handful of confirmed cases.On Friday,the day the emergency were declared, there were 19. The latest update came Tuseday,when county officials said they had confirmed 23 cases and were investigating two more suspected cases.The vast majority of those who have fallen ill had not been immunized.
The outbreak makes concrete the fears of pediatric epidemiologists that a citadel of the movement against compulsory vaccinatio could be susceptible to the rapid spread of a potentially deadly diaease.
State data shows that 7.9 percent of children in Clark County were exempted in the 2017-18 school year frome vaccines required for kindergarten entry,which includes the two-dose course for measles that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is 97 percent effective.Nationally,about 2 percent of children went without required immunization for nonmedical reasons.
Because measles is amony the most highly cintagious of all infectious disease,it is bound to spring up in areas with low vaccination rates,according to PeterJ.Hotez,a professor of pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
"This is somethig I've predicted for a while now",he said of the public health emergency in Clark County."It's really awful and really tragic and totally preventable."
vaccination n. 疫苗接种
hotspot n. 热岛；有重要活动的地方
measles n. 麻疹
outbreak n.爆发。突然发生
escalate v.迅速增长，不断恶化
county n. 郡，县
a handful of 少量的
immunize v.使免疫
pediatric adj.小儿科的
epidemiologist n.流行病学家
citadel n. 堡垒要塞
compulsory adj.必须做的，强制的，强迫的
susceptible adj.亦受影响的
exempt from 免除豁免
dose n.（药的）一剂，一服
course ｎ．疗程
contagious adj.有感染力的；接触感染的
infectious adj.有感染力的；呼吸感染的
spring up 迅速出现，突然兴起
dean 大学院长，系主任
be bound to 很可能的，极有可能的
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