Her son has been sick before, but this time it’s different: Last week Eli was at a Phoenix Children’s Hospital clinic with a woman who had the measles, which spreads easily from person to person. Now he’s showing signs of the virus, such as runny nose and cough and fatigue.
At 10 months old, Eli is too young to get vaccinated and would be especially vulnerable to serious complications of measles, such as deafness and brain damage or even death. But his parents have an even bigger worry. If Eli does have the measles, he could give it to his 3-year-old sister, Maggie, who has leukemia.
So far Maggie is feeling fine, but her parents know that with her immune system wiped out by chemotherapy she’s even more vulnerable than her brother to complications.
“My biggest fear is that I’ll lose my child, or that she’ll become deaf,” Anna Jacks said. “My family has been through enough with cancer. I don’t want her to go through anything else.”
–
He blamed the Jacks family for taking Maggie to the clinic for care.
“If a child is so vulnerable like that, they shouldn’t be going out into society,” he said.
Anna Jacks said she hopes vaccine refusers get educated and change their minds. In the meantime, she prays that her daughter recovers from leukemia and that both her children avoid getting measles.
