A measles outbreak within the community of Somali refugees in Minnesota is quickly becoming a statewide issue.
The health commissioner’s office in Hennepin County reported that are now 30 cases of children who have been diagnosed with measles, with 28 of them being Somali refugees who have not received any vaccinations.
In the last four days alone, there have been 10 reported cases of measles. The outbreak has spread into neighboring counties, suggesting that it may not be contained.
“Eleven of the 30 children have been hospitalized,” Doug Schultz, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, told World Daily Net.
Just last week, Kris Ehresmann, infectious disease division director at the Minnesota Health Department, said that the state’s health laboratory is currently running tests on additional samples for measles, adding that she expects the case count to rise — which is exactly what has happened.
The number of measles cases in the current Hennepin County outbreak is expected to rise. https://t.co/2QqwNP1hC2
— MPR News (@MPRnews) April 19, 2017
“Whenever you have an outbreak in unvaccinated kids, measles just has a field day,” Ehresmann said. “That is what is happening here.”
“This outbreak is about unvaccinated children, not specific communities,” Health Commissioner Ed Ehlinger said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Minnesota Somali community has been targeted with misinformation about vaccine risks. We’re partnering with Somali community leaders and health care providers to counteract that misinformation.”
In 2000, measles were declared “eliminated” inside the United States. But states are seeing an unusual increase in cases, which are typically linked to international travel and refugees migrating into the United States.
Muslims practicing Islam also do not believe in vaccination. As reported by World Net Daily:
Dr. Andrew Bostom, M.D., an academic internist specializing in general internal medicine who has also authored several books about the history of Islam, said Muslim communities often prove difficult to convince that vaccinations are appropriate for their children.
“The case against vaccinations is first an Islamic one,” he said, citing a 2011 article by Dr. Majid Katme, spokesman for the Islamic Medical Association in the United Kingdom.
“We are giving our innocent children haram [forbidden] substances and harmful chemicals that destroy their natural immune systems, causing disease, suffering and death,” Dr. Katme wrote.
“The case against vaccination is first an Islamic one” https://t.co/OP0qHd6fRq MN Somali Muslim measles outbreak ↑↑ https://t.co/c4V3J5XqvG pic.twitter.com/34Ev4cjEdl
— Andrew Bostom, MD, MS (@andrewbostom) April 28, 2017
President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at halting immigration and refugee resettlement from six terror-ridden countries in the United States — including Somalia — but the order was blocked by federal district courts in Washington and Hawaii.
Since 1990, more than 132,000 Somalis have migrated into the United States as refugees, with the largest community being located in Minneapolis. Somali refugees are heavily populated across the United States in places like San Diego, California, Atlanta, Georgia, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Portland, Oregon and Nashville, Tennessee.
The Star Tribune reported:
One of the first measles cases detected in the current outbreak began at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, where doctors initially thought a child was having a skin reaction to an antibiotic, Patsy Stinchfield, a nurse practitioner specializing in infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital.
In 2015, 134,000 measles-related deaths were reported worldwide. The last death in the U.S., where vaccination rates are generally high, was in 2015.
If an outbreak can be contained, it can be treated. If the outbreak spreads to neighboring cities and states because those practicing Islam do not believe in vaccinations, an epidemic could easily begin to take hold in this country.
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