Minnesota measles outbreak hits Somalis hard amid vaccine fears

MINNEAPOLIS — Health officials struggling to contain a measles outbreak that's hit hard in Minneapolis' large Somali community are running into resistance from parents who fear the vaccine could give their children autism.

Fourteen confirmed measles cases have been reported in Minnesota since February. Half have been in Somali children, six of whom were not vaccinated and one who was not old enough for shots. State officials have linked all but one case to an unvaccinated Somali infant who returned from a trip to Kenya in February.

The state had reported zero or one case of measles a year for most of the past decade.

Amid the outbreak, a now-discredited British researcher who claimed there was a link between vaccines and autism has been meeting with local Somalis. Some worry Andrew Wakefield is stoking fears, but organizers say the meetings were merely a chance for parents to ask him questions.

"Unfortunately a lot of the media thinks he's saying 'Don't get vaccinated.' That's far from the truth. He's basically encouraging people to get vaccinated but do your homework and know the risks," said Wayne Rohde, a co-founder of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, which says parents should have other options for immunizing their children.

Measles has been all but eradicated in the United States but accounts for about 200,000 annual deaths worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. None of those infected in Minnesota have died, though eight have required hospitalization.

The infections come as autism concerns have surged over an apparent rise in cases in Minnesota's Somali community, the largest in the U.S.

The Minnesota Department of Public Health found in 2009 that young Somali children in Minneapolis public schools were overrepresented in autism programs but said that alone didn't prove a higher rate of autism.

Wakefield's work fueled a backlash against childhood vaccinations after he published a 1998 paper in the medical journal Lancet linking autism to the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in a dozen children. After questions were raised about his research, the Lancet retracted his paper last year, the U.K.'s General Medical Council ordered that his name be erased from the country's medical register, and the British Medical Journal in January denounced him as a fraud.

He issued a statement in January standing by his work and calling for more research to determine if environmental triggers, including vaccines, cause autism.

Numerous studies addressing autism and vaccines, or the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, which formerly was used to preserve vaccines, so far have found no link.

About 100 parents attended Wakefield's first Minneapolis appearance in December. About 15 met with him during his most recent visit, on March 23.

Several parents said they were wary of the MMR vaccine because measles is usually temporary while autism is permanent, said Rohde, who has a 13-year-old with autism. Rohde said he doesn't claim the vaccine caused his son's autism by itself but believes it was a factor.

Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed, a Minneapolis Somali family practice physician, contends Wakefield has caused a global hysteria that has cost lives.

"He's using a vulnerable population here, mothers looking for answers," Mohamed said. "He's providing a fake hope."