TWO MILLION ISRAELIS UNVACCINATED OR PARTIALLY VACCINATED FOR MEASLES

.jpost

More than two million Israelis are either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated for the measles, according to a Channel 13 report.

An outbreak of the measles has been worrying Israelis for months as it spread throughout the country, as well as in the rest of the world. But Israeli media reports on Tuesday night exposed the severity of the situation and the difficulty in solving the crisis.

The Health Ministry claims that it has only 115,000 doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine available and 100,000 additional doses of the MMRV vaccine, which combines the diminished measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, according to Channel 13.

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira has considered examining the Health Ministry’s handling of the recent measles outbreak, according to a report released in January.

The comptroller’s office contacted infectious disease and public health experts, and is working on compiling data about past efforts regarding the measles outbreak, examining if they were sufficient.

However, no formal decision has been made so far over the next steps to take in combating the outbreak.

The ministry released a statements in the past warning the general public about the dangers of measles, including that one out of every ten patients requires hospitalization after contracting the virus.