Only four people—two students and two staffers from the Lagunitas School District—received measles vaccines at a free clinic held at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center last Thursday. County health officials nevertheless hailed the clinic, which was also open to other valley residents, as an opportunity to practice a quick-response model for offsite vaccination treatment.
The model could help county staff in future outbreak cases that require a speedy response, such as in the event of a bioterrorism attack, health officials said.
“We were able to mobilize rapidly and coordinate with the community,” said Robert Benjamin, a public health officer for Marin County Health and Human Services. “We ensured that the vaccine was delivered safely and effectively.”
San Geronimo Elementary School, which houses one of Lagunitas School District’s two elementary programs, has one of the highest measles vaccine opt-out rates among kindergarteners in Marin, according to the county. The district’s principal, Laura Shain, said many parents continue to opt-out despite a recent state law that requires a doctor visit before claiming the personal belief exemption.
“It’s the fear of vaccinations,” Ms. Shain said of the choice not to vaccinate. “People were willing to go that extra step to have a doctor sign off, so that shows the opt-outs here were not done for convenience’s sake. It speaks to the fact that our community feels things strongly and is a passionate community.”
County health officials began organizing the clinic after receiving a phone call request from the school district. Ms. Shain made the call in response to parents’ concerns that the geographical and cultural isolation of the valley may be preventing some from vaccinating their children for measles in the wake of a nationwide outbreak.
“It may be that access is not the greatest barrier here,” said Matt Willis, a public health officer for the county who has led recent efforts to address the risk of measles spread among unvaccinated children in elementary schools. “But we are happy if even one person gets vaccinated.”
Regardless of Thursday’s low turnout, Ms. Shain said she expects the number of opt-outs in the district to decline in the coming weeks. She said at least three children have received vaccines over the last couple of weeks, and that many more parents had been turning in documentation showing proof of vaccination from their providers.
“I think the majority of the community really wants kids and staff to be immunized,” she said. “We’re in a tough position because we want to honor all of our families and all of their positions.”
Although the county health department has confirmed two cases of measles in Marin County, no measles cases have been reported in the San Geronimo Valley. However, in letters sent to school districts throughout Marin, public health officials have cautioned that schools can become breeding grounds for infectious diseases like measles to spread quickly among a large amount of people.
In the event of measles exposure in a particular school, unvaccinated children at that school will be required to stay at home for 21 days, according to county health officials. Children with weak immune system are particularly susceptible to contracting the disease.
“There’s a lot of concern, especially among parents of children with compromised immune systems,” said Suzanne Sadowski, the associate director at the San Geronimo Community Center. “The fact of bringing health services to the community is positive.”
Normally, vaccine clinics for infectious diseases like flu and whooping cough are given at the county’s Immunization Clinic in San Rafael, where vaccine doses are kept in cooled, easily controlled storage facilities. County health workers do offer off-site seasonal vaccine clinics, most often to treat flu, but rarely does the county deal with instances of outbreak.
For Thursday, a team of health service staff—including six nursing students, three public health nurses, one registered nurse and two health officers—were able to set up the clinic in San Geronimo in less than a week when, usually, offsite outreach staff take between two and three weeks to plan.
“It’s unusual for us to do,” Mr. Willis said. “But we want to eliminate every barrier.”
County staff prepared and transported 120 does of Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine from San Rafael to the community center through a process called a “cold chain,” in which doses were kept in iced coolers to maintain near-freezing temperatures and prevent changes from light exposure.