Today I am addressing parents.
All parents want what is best for their child. As a paediatrician who has seen preventable infectious diseases appearing in children, it is important to explore why we see vaccination rates faltering and what we can do to boost it. I declare that I have no interest in BigPharma and am not paid by anyone for this article.
I must say that as parents you have a big challenge. The first time you are given a newborn child to come home with, it can be overwhelming. You are loaded with more questions than answers. What milk to feed? Is she drinking enough? Is he sleeping too much? How much stool is normal? Is this rash abnormal? Then at 6 weeks you are given preparatory information on vaccinating your child by your paediatrician. Then you start to think and worse yet google- "Is vaccination safe?" Then a whole world of anti vaccine memes and articles will pop up and you begin to wonder if my child will get sick because of these shots. And now you are confused.
To be fair, the ones who decide not to vaccinate are doing so with good intention but usually based on misinformation gathered on the internet and social media. To help make an informed decision let us do a small risk analysis?
I am going to use an example with the chickenpox vaccine.
Let us look at the risks of chickenpox. According to a study by Gray SJ and Cathie K, the risks of varicella infection is 1%. This means that 1 out of 100 children who get the chickenpox infection will get a complication. This may include: secondary bacterial skin infection, cerebellitis (brain infection), pneumonia (lung infection), otitis media (ear infection) and arthritis.
On the other side of the coin, the risk of side effects from a chickenpox vaccine is 0.034%. This means that about 3 children out of every 10 000 children who are vaccinated will have some side effect. These would include: fever, injection site pain, rash, joint pain and febrile convulsion.
So from a statistical point, if 10 000 people were to get chickenpox infection, then 100 persons will get a complication from the infection. And if 10 000 people were vaccinated against chickenpox, then 3.4 will get a complication from the vaccination. The odds are in favour for vaccination.
Chickenpox infection goes around from time to time and can spike into an epidemic. No one knows when the next outbreak of chickenpox will be, but if it were to come, it is highly infectious even before the rash appears and will spread like bush fire in daycare and schools.
If I were to ask you- have you seen a person with small pox, your answer would definitely be No. Why is that? It's because of eradication through vaccination. The rates of many other infectious diseases have dropped drastically due to vaccines but not down to zero.
As a consequence, many persons conclude that- if I am not seeing it, then I do not need to vaccinate. This is a flawed view. Many infections are still present at high rates in varying parts of the world. The vaccines have reduced its presence in front of you but it does not mean that the infection is non existent. Your child can still contract polio if you do not vaccinate and visit a rural community that has refused vaccination and has local cases of polio infection.
If the rates of vaccination dwindle then herd immunity will drop. What's that?
As a parent, you will see this word bandied about by anti vaccine movements- herd immunity. This refers to the fact that once a certain percentage of individuals are vaccinated then the unvaccinated few will be protected. There are some parents who will think- "well my child will benefit from herd immunity, so I will not vaccinate." Now what will happen if we all think like this?- No more herd immunity.
Moreover, the purpose of herd immunity is to protect those who are medically unable to vaccinate. Herd immunity is for the little child who has leukemia and cannot take live vaccines. It is for the young boy who has an immunodeficiency syndrome and cannot produce antibodies. It is for the teenager who is undergoing chemotherapy for a bone tumor and at risk for invasive infectious diseases.
When you and I vaccinate ourselves and children, we are protecting those whose immune systems are unable to defend themselves. In this way, we are indirectly saving the lives of others. Isn't it a great feeling to know that you are saving someone's life? This is the true essence of herd immunity.
Because I am writing about vaccines and you are concerned about its harms that you may have read online. I must mention categorically that vaccines do NOT cause Autism. Andrew Wakefield's study has been discredited and retracted from the Lancet. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that there is no link whatsoever. So any discussion along this line is misleading information and you should ignore it.
Lots more can be said on vaccines, but I would like to address one recent concern. The majority of religious sectors are pro vaccine but are concerned about whether the ingredients meet their religious obligation. For example the Jewish and Muslim community do not consume porcine products. So if there is any porcine products in the medicine it may come into conflict with their beliefs. The MMR and Chickenpox vaccines contain porcine gelatine as a stabilizer. However, a porcine gelatine free option for the MMR and Varicella vaccines are now available. So please discuss with your physician more about this. You can still vaccinate and keep your religious obligation.
So the long and short of it is- vaccination is good. They serve a greater role than just protecting your child. You are protecting other children indirectly whose immune systems are weak. Vaccines do NOT cause autism and porcine free options are available to meet religious requirements.
Please vaccinate your child. He/she has a right to be protected from infectious diseases.
Dr. Zafir Latchan
Gray SJ, Cathie K.Fifteen-minute consultation: Chickenpox vaccine—should parents immunise their children privately?
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Education and Practice Published Online First: 04 August 2018. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2018-314765
NHS. Vaccines and porcine gelatine. Public Health England. Aug 2015
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