An Edmonton couple has cancelled a trip to the so-called “happiest place on Earth” over fears their infant will fall victim to a measles outbreak that’s been traced back to the theme park.
John and Tina Bitangcol had booked a February trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., with other family members. In mid-December, a handful of measles cases in the United States were traced back to the theme park.
Since then more than 70 people, including five park employee, have fallen ill in six states and Mexico.
At just seven weeks old, the Bitangcol family’s youngest child is too young to get vaccinated. Rather than expose him to the virus, the family is staying home.
“The bottom line is: is it worth the risk to go to the happiest place on earth?” John Bitangcol said. “Absolutely not.”
As an emergency room doctor, Bitangcol knows that most measles cases are not life-threatening. However, “bacterial super-infections” are among the risks the virus carries. These include pneumonia, encephalitis (brain inflammation), seizures and deafness.
“Those are the things that can’t be predicted in terms of severity,” Bitangcol said.
Bitangcol’s wife, Tina, said she hopes parents who are deciding against vaccinating their children are educating themselves about the risks that will pose, not only for their own kids, but for others, as well.
“If everybody that could be immunized gets immunized and their kids get immunized, then basically we would have been okay because the chance of an outbreak is very small,” she said.
In response to the Disneyland outbreak, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a statement Friday, to say that vaccination is “the most effective tool we have” against infectious diseases.
"A family vacation to an amusement park -- or a trip to the grocery store, a football game or school -- should not result in children becoming sickened by an almost 100 percent preventable disease," AAP executive director and CEO Dr. Errol R. Alden said in a statement.
"We are fortunate to have an incredibly effective tool that can prevent our children from suffering. That is so rare in medicine.”
Infected people can spread the virus up to four days before they develop symptoms, the AAP said. These include rash, high fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes.
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses that affects humans, the agency said, and it is high immunization rates that protect those who cannot receive the vaccination, including infants.
“If you choose not to do it for whatever reason other than your inability, then it affects the rest of us because we rely on the immunity of the whole community,” John Bitangcol said.
