Brooklyn, NY – Williamsburg Chicken Pox Outbreak Has DOH Issuing Alert To NYC Medical Community

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    Brooklyn, NY- A chicken pox outbreak that has swept through Williamsburg’s Jewish community has prompted the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to issue an alert to physicians throughout the city, warning about the possible spread of the highly contagious varicella virus.

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    75 cases of chicken pox have been reported in Williamsburg since the beginning of March, all in children aged 10 and under, with a median age of three years in the reported cases.

    72 percent of the cases occurred in children who were not immunized at all against chicken pox, while 14 percent had begun, but not completed, the two part vaccine series.

    The first dose of the varicella immunization is typically given at age 12 to 15 months, with a follow up booster at age four to complete the series. Two doses of the vaccine are recommended for all children and adults who do not have immunity to the virus, which can be determined via a blood test.

    Christopher Miller, press secretary for the city’s Department of Health, said that the reported cases included both children who had been following the recommended vaccine schedule but hadn’t been immunized against varicella, as well as those who were behind on other immunizations as well.

    Vaccinations have become a highly charged issue with some parents steadfastly refusing to immunize their children.

    As previously reported on VIN News(http://goo.gl/9TVwX10), a growing movement of parents who ask their doctors to delay vaccinations has been met with concern as unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children expose their peers to infectious diseases. As of September 1, 2015, New York State requires all children to be up to date on their immunizations before starting school.

    The Department of Health urged physicians to make sure that all of their staff and patients have received the chickenpox vaccine which is 98 percent effective at preventing the disease which can cause pneumonia, bacterial infection, meningitis, encephalitis, birth defects and death.

    The alert also instructed doctors to give early treatment to those in high risk groups, which includes pregnant women, and advised medical professionals to follow strict protocols for those exposed to the virus who lack immunity, which could include home confinement for a full 21 days after exposure.\

    Miller said that the outbreak has, so far, been confined to Williamsburg.

    “No other chickenpox outbreaks have been reported in NYC recently,” Miller told VIN News.

    The Department of Health has been reaching out to the Williamsburg community, distributing pamphlets written in both English and Yiddish at a Hatzolah health fair this past Sunday.

    Letters warning about the outbreak are being distributed to the community through schools and Yeled V’Yalda, a Brooklyn-based social services agency for children.

    Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg said that community leaders are working on containing the outbreak and have scheduled a meeting on Wednesday with health care providers, school officials and representatives of the Department of Health.


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    47 Comments
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    cbdds
    cbdds
    7 years ago

    Yeah, what I am understanding is that even when done correctly the vaccine has a 1 in 6 failure to protect. That is a shame. Considering that we really need to trust this vaccine because this is a sickness that many have had in childhood with minimal effects yet gained long term immunity. Contrast that with a vaccine with a failure rate and the risks if the immunity is not really there and disease strikes during pregnancy.

    7 years ago

    Many parents fear immunizing their children with the MMR vaccine due to fear of autism which is commonly given together with the varicella vaccine. Studies show there’s no correlation to autism. But I was wondering if anyone knows of families who don’t vaccinate and there’s still autism? What’s the public’s take?

    7 years ago

    The new square ruv is opposed to this vaccine. Why is that?

    7 years ago

    I urge everyone to go and see the documentary “vaxxed” about the whistleblower at the CDC who exposed the cover up of data that showed a causal link between the MMR vaccine and Autism. The MMR vaccine is now given as MMRV with the V standing for Varicella. I also urge everyone to listen for themselves to the secret recordings of Dr William Thompson – the CDC whistleblower – and make your own judgment. The recordings can be found at Fearlessparent.com. They are even more damning then the documentary. It is now clear that there has been fraud and coverup at the CDC with regards to vaccine safety studies and that routine vaccination for minor childhood illnesses such as Chicken Pox is not a good idea. In case you have not noticed there has been an exponential rise in Neuro Developmental disorders such as Regressive Autism, ADHD, Anxiety and Depression over the last 20 or so years. Many independent scientists and medical doctors have hypothesized that this is connected to the vaccine regimen which changed dramatically beginning in the early 90s.

    LionofZion
    LionofZion
    7 years ago

    #5 , the Rav did not go to medical school, or college or high school. Not sure why anyone would ask him a medical question. He has done a really good job of getting tax dollars to pay actual doctors at Refuah. Maybe ask them the medical questions.

    jayclass
    jayclass
    7 years ago

    There should be seperate schools for kids that are not vaccinated

    Butterfly
    Butterfly
    7 years ago

    Do you know the dangers of a pregnant woman and the chicken pox virus? It is not pretty!

    7 years ago

    There is so much folklore in this discussion. In order for a causal relationship to be determined, the research must be able to do more than throw around numbers of correlation. There can be many factors that explain the numbers, and the idea that vaccines cause any of these dreaded conditions is just a hypothesis. I have read these reports and discussions for years, and I only walk away with the recognition that we know nothing.

    It seems clear that the absence of vaccines is correlated with an outbreak of the disease. That is the strongest correlation in this entire discussion. Should that lead to a conclusion that the vaccine MUST be given? Maybe, but maybe not. At the end of the day, there is nary a Rov or Rosh Yeshiva that possesses the range of knowledge needed to make a definitive statement. With all respect they otherwise deserve, I do not care what their opinion is about this subject.

    RamapoJew
    RamapoJew
    7 years ago

    This is just a bi product of an uneducated parent body. Williamsburg and other communities have been robbed of education. As a result they rely on quack doctors and untrained rebbe’s to make health decisions. People with even the most basic educations understand the need to ask professionals (not whistleblowers and rebbes’s) professional questions. If you have a question about immunization talk to your child’s pediatrician about it, not a rebbe, Ask your rebbe if your pots is kosher or not – don’t ask him for medical advice. Asking your garbage man if your tax return is correct is a good way to go to prison. Asking not medical professionals for medical advice is a good way to go to funerals.

    RocklandRes
    RocklandRes
    7 years ago

    Great, so what’s next? Smallpox, Rubella, Polio? Come on it’s 2016, not the dark ages.

    MorrisIyan
    MorrisIyan
    7 years ago

    It doesn’t take a rocket scientist much to figure out why there seems to be clusters of mumps. chickenpox,lice,herpes & flip-phones in certain zip codes

    shmielglassman
    shmielglassman
    7 years ago

    these ladies in willy believe in all kind of nonsense from dousers, to keitlach, every quack can open in willy and there is a line at the door the rebbes have nothing to do w this / and the anti vacs movement has not been battled and now we see the damage i am a licensed therapist and i do not accept clients that dont vaccinate

    mewhoze
    mewhoze
    7 years ago

    what about shingles? I hear that many adults in Brooklyn have come down with that as well.

    LionofZion
    LionofZion
    7 years ago

    #24 , you have access to everything I do. It’s all over the Internet. The guy was a flake, s phony and a con. He was found liable repeatedly in malpractice suits and he was selling unauthorized treatments to gullible people at $6000 a pop. Btw, despite the name, he was not a Heimishe Yid from the way he looked. He is dead now, at the ripe age of 69, and hopefully his mistaken ideas will go with him.

    leahle
    leahle
    7 years ago

    It is quack science to say that fewer unvaccinated kids have asthma. It is incredibly difficult to set up a double-blind study on such things, but there was one in Germany a few years back. It concluded that the major difference in health outcomes between unvaccinated and vaccinated kids was that the unvaxxed had higher numbers of, wait for it, cases of the diseases for which they were not vaccinated. Medical studies clearly show no differences in autism rates or asthma rates in the two groups. Read valid medical and scientific studies for your information, not the quackery that is rampant on the Internet. The only sites that claim lower asthma rates in the unvaccinated are anti-science, anti-vax sites. Not a single double-blind, valid scientific study among them but internet surveys (not scientifically valid) or papers written by homeopathic practitioners (quackery). If you choose to get your medical advice and risk the health of your children from someone with no medical knowledge, best of luck to you.