Ohio parents increasingly forgoing vaccines for children

Despite assurances from the federal Food and Drug Administration that there is no link between childhood vaccines and the increasing incidents of autism, more Ohio parents are deciding against having their children immunized (Source: “A difficult decision,” Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 16, 2009).

Although it still comprises less than one percent of all cases, the number of religious/philosophical exemptions to vaccines has nearly quadrupled in Ohio in the last 11 years. In 1997 there were 335 kindergarteners exempted from the state’s immunization requirements. By 2007, that number had jumped to 1,186, according to Ohio Department of Health data.

Despite the relatively small number of exemptions in Ohio, the trend is a “big concern,” said Dr. Patricia Manning-Courtney, a pediatric developmental specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "It doesn't take a lot of unvaccinated kids to start a little pocket of infection and epidemic.”