Measles Outbreak 2015 Update: California Lawmakers Looking to End Vaccine Exemptions

Due to the worsening state of the measles outbreak in the United States, two legislators in California submitted a bill aiming to remove the rights of parents to exempt their children from vaccination programs, the San Francisco Gate reported.

The bill, drafted by Senators Ben Allen of Santa Monica and Richard Pan of Sacramento, was submitted at California's State Capitol on Wednesday. They were joined by parents who are in support of the bill.

According to the two, the high number of unvaccinated children is one of the leading contributors to the spread of the measles outbreak in California.

Public health officials recently confirmed that the state now has 92 confirmed infection cases. Majority of those can be traced back to the Disneyland outbreak which began in December of last year.

The lawmakers noted that although vaccinations are administered in public schools to students, some may be exempted from the procedure if their parents refuse to have them vaccinated. In California, over 13,000 kindergarten students have been exempted from vaccinations for this school year.

Many parents cite the adverse side effects of vaccines as the primary reason why they do not allow their children to get vaccinated. However, recent medical studies have already debunked notions regarding the side-effects of vaccines.

Allen, a former board president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, emphasized that the bill will ensure that students remain healthy and safe from the outbreak.

"The high number of unvaccinated students is jeopardizing public health not only in schools but in the broader community," the senator said in a statement according to Reuters.

"We need to take steps to keep our schools safe and our students healthy," Allen added.

The lawmaker then argued that the country has managed to eliminate and control disease outbreaks in the past by widely administering vaccines to the public.

If passed, the bill would make California the 33^rd state in the country that has legally removed vaccine exemptions based on parents' personal beliefs.