PANAMA CITY — A recent measles outbreak at Disneyland has put the national anti-vaccination movement in the spotlight, but Bay County health officials said local immunizations are holding steady.
Kathy Soto, school health coordinator of the Bay County Health Department, said research shows local vaccination rates at nearly 100 percent.
An immunization assessment of seventh-grade public school students in Florida for the 2013-2014 school year — the most recent year available — said the rate of immunization in Bay County was 98 percent. Of an enrollment of 1,994 seventh-graders, 1,954 students had certification of immunization,
Among Bay County kindergarten students, 97.4 percent were immunized.
“In Florida, we are above national averages,” Soto said of immunization rates.
The number of reported measles cases connected to the outbreak at Disneyland had grown to 87 cases by Monday, the California Department of Health reported, according to The Associated Press.
Nationally, some parents don’t get their children immunized, believing vaccines can cause autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention repeatedly has said vaccines are not associated with a risk of autism.
School entry requirements in Florida for the 2014-2015 school year from kindergarten through the 12th grade say students must have vaccines against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, hepatitis B, polio, measles-mumps-rubella, and varicella.