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Despite Measles Outbreak, Vaccine Rates Remain Steady Among Arizona Kindergarteners

In August, the Arizona Department of Health (DHS) announced that the measles outbreak stemming from an Eloy detention facility earlier this year was the largest in the nation, with 29 cases. The year before, there was Disneyland in which an Arizona family was infected with the highly contagious virus.

Despite such outbreaks, the number of Arizona kids getting vaccinated with the measles mumps and rubella vaccine or the MMR hasn’t changed much.

The numbers aren’t bad, but they’re not great either, depending on where you live. MMR coverage levels for kindergarteners in the last two school years remained steady — right at 94.2 percent. Meaning an outbreak like the one stemming from Disneyland, or a change in the exemption forms which mandates an unvaccinated child be removed from school if there’s an outbreak, didn’t affect the numbers.

So, now what? Jessica Rigler is with DHS.

"That’s the $100,00 question that lots of us struggle with, with anything, not just vaccine rates," said Rigler. "Some of these are behavioral changes, some of them are educational changes and then there are convenience issues, too when you talk about vaccines, do you have time to get your child in to the physician’s office to get the vaccine."

Rigler said there are also parents who have vaccinated their kids, but sign the exemption form anyway because they don’t have proof of immunity. She said it’s really easy to sign an exemption form so you can enroll your kid in school.

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KJZZ senior field correspondent Kathy Ritchie has 20 years of experience reporting and writing stories for national and local media outlets — nearly a decade of it has been spent in public media.