Be sure your child gets those shots!

Oh without a doubt. Vaccinophobia is one of the greatest examples of having too much time on your hands. There is a risk of allergic reaction to vaccinations, but there's an allergy risk associated with giving your child Tylenol for fever, or prescribed antibiotics for an infection that may well kill him if he doesn't get the medicine.

Mainstream vaccinophobia seems to have risen out of the concern over a rather sensationally proposed, unproven link between MMR vaccine and autism. MMR is measles/mumps/rubella; this is a composite vaccine, reducing the number of shots your child requires. But if you're uncomfortable, you can find a pediatrician who will honor your request to give the respective vaccines separately. There's been no speculation about the individual vaccines causing autism. (They should remain available; I believe, though I may be mistaken, that immuno-compromised/immuno-suppressed patients aren't supposed to receive the composite vaccine.)

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As a parent of a vaccine injured child I take great offense to the idea that parents who don't vaccinate are afraid of "nothing."

I think the important thing to pay attention to in this article is that:

1. Nobody died or was disabled or injured.
2. Vaccine failure DID occur and how do you know if your kid is going to be one of those who ends up with both an adverse event and the disease later on?
3. If your child is vaccinated - and vaccinations are the best solution to all public health concerns, than why do you care if I would rather my child develop natural immunity in childhood to a disease that in most cases doesn't cause problems?

Even if there was an "epidemic" in the US - which 34 cases is hardly that, more people would still die from heart disease, cancer and car accidents than would die in a measles epidemic.

Please don't blast those who choose not to vaccinate for legitimate reasons and assume that we're just too lazy to do it or that we're uneducated. For many of us it's an incredibly hard decision even after witnessing a serious vaccine reaction.

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You can show me all these studies until you are blue in the face. Nothing will make me change my mind. Lochlan does not need to be vaccinated. As Trudy has said, parents who choose not to vaccinate their children are making an EDUCATED decision.

I take comfort that this study showed that NOT a single person died (meaning medical intervention for measles has improved greatly) AND this outbreak occurred TEN years ago. No outbreaks since then so that shows me how rarely this happens. We should be more concerned about women and children dying from domestic violence, children dying in car accidents due to improper installation of car seats, etc.

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Heather, you sure picked a hot-button topic. And I am a bit put off by the fact you would just pick one study to base your beliefs on. While I chose to vaccinate my DD, I will strongly defend the right of parents who chose not to vax. Please read the article written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that ran in Salon last year http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/06/16/thimerosal/print.html. It may make you rethink the whole issue.

And san, don't dismiss non-vaxing beliefs as "too much time on your hands." An educated and attentive parent is best, don't you agree?

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the problem is not with the select few who choose not to vaccinate. the problem is that if the population who chooses not to vaccinate grows to an exceedingly high amount and highly contagious disease breaks out, then there could potentially be an epidemic. vaccines were created for a reason and because of them, we have never had to deal with a true epidemic in our time and hopefully will not have to as long as enough people continue to vaccinate.

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Trudy, I'm not sure if you're particularly directing your comments to me, but I didn't say you were lazy or uneducated. I'm assuming that your child had an allergic reaction to the carrier medium in one of the vaccinations. I agonize each time one of my children gets a vaccination or takes a medicine to which they haven't been regularly exposed, for that very reason, until it's obvious they aren't going to have an anaphylactic reaction. So there are indeed very real risks to vaccinations, but adverse reactions are rare -- I know that doesn't matter if your child has a problem -- and the benefits to our children and to all children are enormous.

Vaccine failure isn't really a good excuse, though. Our daughter caught type A influenza last winter. She's eleven. Big deal. But she was vaccinated. Vaccine failed. Big deal, she's eleven. But she was in direct contact with our seven-day-old son while contagious but before we had the rapid flu test done. That could have been catastrophic. But he didn't get it. Had we written off the flu vaccine because of vaccine failure, we wouldn't have vaccinated our daughter and that probably wouldn't have mattered. Yet with that mindset we wouldn't have vaccinated ourselves, so Truman would not have received flu antibodies in utero and via breast milk. Sure most newborns with type A flu do okay, but some die. Death is a real risk in a newborn with flu. Uncommon episodes of vaccine failure should not keep people from as a general rule getting vaccinated when circumstances and environment dictate.

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San,

What would you say to a parent who has a child diagnosed on the autistic spectrum. A child, whose doctors have stated, is not allowed to eat seafood because of mercury levels.

Would you tell that parent to vaccinate their child with the flu vaccine?

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Keri, the reason your child doesn't need to be vaccinated is because we choose to vaccinate our children.

Ventura, "too much time on your hands" is a poor choice of words. Of course informed parents are best. But failure to vaccinate is just a mistake. It's a risky mistake. And it's not just because of the unlikely chance of some rare outbreak. The more people who don't vaccinate the more likely we are to have serious diseases showing up in the juvenile population again. That's something to worry about.

I can disagree with the vaccinophobics but accept the logic if they don't vaccinate, won't give their kids antibiotics for low-grade bacterial infections and won't use Tylenol to reduce a fever. But if you're doing the latter two but won't do the first, you're running the same order of risk; the rationale falls apart.

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You know, in so many ways, the fear of some of these diseases is far worse than the disease itself. And that's really sad.

Personally speaking, I don't fear my daughter getting the flu or even *gasp* - the chicken pox. In fact I want my daughter to get natural immunity to the chicken pox.

Really though, my point is simply that not vaccinating is a valid choice if you make it because of research. And most of those who don't vaccinate or stop vaccinating after a reaction, do so with the acceptance that their child may get a vaccine preventable disease and choose that as preferable over the risks of the vaccine.

Was my daughter's reaction to an additive or to one of the bacteria in the vaccine itself? I don't know and never will know. What I do know is that I'm grateful she didn't suffer permanent effects - at least that we know of, and that I had the courage to do the research and make the decision regarding future vaccinations based on what's right for my family.

No family should be criticized for doing whats best for them. And sadly enough, this may not have been as much of a news story if the person who had brought the measles back had actually been vaccinated & the cluster of cases was initiated by a case of vaccine failure.

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People who choose not to vaccinate are lucky that the rest of us do. My boss didn't vaccinate his kids based on the fact that most of the kids ARE vaccinated therefore less likely to spread the disease. I wonder how he would feel if the rest of us chose not to vaccinate or if we lived somewhere that there are none available.

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the risk is on both sides. i risked side effects and vaccinated my son. those who don't vaccinate will have to face the risk that their children could potentially contract a life-threatening disease either in childhood or, worse, in their adulthood because they weren't vaccinated. hopefully that never happens but the fact remains that the possibility is still there due to those who don't vaccinate. disease and vaccines are a matter of science. not speculation. that said, i personally do not judge anyone on their choice to vaccinate or not because i'm confident that there are those that will continue to vaccinate in the name of science. however, i will say that i am a bit skeptical about the flu vaccine in particular. it's still fairly new when you think in terms of medical science and there seems to be a lot of controversy over it. but this article was in reference to measles. not the flu.

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Kellie, the case you cite is a special case. I'd do what my pediatrics team told me to do. Past 24 months, flu vaccine isn't as big an issue; it's more of a convenience. Also, the amount of mercury in vaccines isn't all that great in the first place, has been lately reduced or eliminated from a lot of vaccine formulations. You'll get more mercury from regularly eating seafood than you will from the limited number of vaccinations you'll get in your life. But again this is a special case. If I was told no seafood, then no seafood. If they said no seafood, but a couple flu shots under 24 months is an acceptable exposure and they recommend the flu shot, I'd get the flu shot. They are always going to be cases in which children congenital conditions or certain illnesses should not get certain vaccinations. Children who are allergic to egg white can't get flu shots and I wouldn't be giving one to my kid if he were allergic to egg whites.

Trudy, here's the rub: it's not what's best for your family, it's what's best for all of us, for all of our children. Vaccination is not a decision that affects only one child, one family. You don't want my child carrying a jar of benzene to your preschool, no matter how much I want to encourage his interest in chemistry. That's a great simplification, but I think you see my point.

I'd like to know -- excepting Kellie's special situation -- if any of your pediatricians are recommending that healthy children with no known risk factors skip their vaccinations.

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San, you cannot speak for me on why I believe Lochlan does not need to be vaccinated. He does not need to be vaccinated because the chances of getting sick from the vaccines were just not worth it for me. He is very healthy, does not go to daycare and does not travel out of the country yet. Therefore, vaccination is unnecessary for him right now.

Lochlan has never had antibiotics. His doctor does not believe in giving kids antibiotics unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. This past year, Lochlan has had three chest colds but he got over them with plenty of breastmilk and steamy baths with essential oils mixed in the water. I refuse to give him Tylenol. We use natural remedies and homeopathic remedies.

And please do not label me as a vaccinophobic. This was just a logical choice for me and my family; no phobia of any kind.

Now you have no choice but to accept my rationale because you said you would if I didn't give my son Tylenol and antibiotics.

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Anna, flu vaccine works by the same mechanism as any other virus vaccine. But flu mutates -- "drifts" -- so fast they have to reengineer the vaccine every season. And the vaccine only contains maybe two As and a B: the ones they think most likely to reach epidemic proportions during the season. Guess wrong, and people get infected with a virus not included. Also some of the questions as to efficacy of the flu vaccine have to do with the fact the sometimes flu will drift so fast during any given season that the vaccine-stimulated immunity will not work for the resulting mutated virus. So the overall failure rate of flu vaccine is higher than other vaccines, although the rate of failure due to idiosyncratic cases of incomplete immunity is probably about the same as anything else.

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Keri, absolutely. I still think you're wrong, but your execution of your decisions is logical, it makes sense.

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San- my son's pediactrician agreed with me that not ALL vaccines were necessary for him being that he did not go to daycare. The only two that she recommended was the pertussis and tetantus vaccines because both diseases are very present in Vermont (in her words).

HOWEVER, my friend's daughter (they live 15 minutes from me) got the whooping cough and she had already been vaccinated for it. No point in getting that vaccine for Lochlan since there's medical intervention for that IF he gets it.

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San - I'm guessing that you're either a dr. or someone involved either in the pharma industry or public health?

The thing of the matter is, is that I refuse to put my future children at risk for the good of society. And I respect anyone else who does the same.

Many people think that those who don't vaccinate "free load" off the immunity of those who have been vaccinated, but I would say a good proportion of us are willing to deal with the disease. And don't fear the diseases that we've been taught to fear. Would I be happy to see my daughter sick with measles? No. But would I freak or panic about it? No.

My daughter reacted to the DTaP/HIB/IPV (Pentacel) vaccine, but we're not doing MMR. If I was worried about her getting the measles, (she's 2 by the way,) and having complications, then we'd vaccinate her. But the truth is - and even the CDC's pink book confirms this, that the vast majority of deaths caused by measles are caused not by measles itself, but complications that arise as a result of poor diet, general nutrition/hygiene status or immune status. All things which primarily affect people in 3rd world countries.

Yes, as an adult I'll admit I'm scared of getting the measles, only because I didn't have them as a child and I don't trust that the vaccine I had as a child has me immune anymore. But my fear of what measles would be like to get as an adult isn't enough to put my daughter through the risks of the vaccine. And I wouldn't freak if everybody else in my city decided not to vaccinate their kids either and a measles outbreak happened.

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She only received one round of Pentacel? Okay, I'll punt on diptheria, pertussis and polio, and also on measles, mumps and rubella. But what about tetanus and Hib? Are you going to vaccinate her separately for those? Tetanus is still serious, still a risk and is not dependent on a community of hosts to infect. Hib was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis -- and, yeah, I would fear that, more so than measles. I would expect your daughter still runs some greater risk for a Hib infection than the general population of vaccinated children.

But you did have an adverse reaction. That does indeed require a rethink, because your child now has risk profile. I'm still against rejecting vaccination out of hand.

""San - I'm guessing that you're either a dr. or someone involved either in the pharma industry or public health?""

Wrong on all counts. Although I will grant you I was a pre-med student, and have been off and on for years a science and technical writer.

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San - She's actually had 2 Pentacel doses. HAd a minor reaction to the 1st, major reaction to the 2nd and we stopped. While it's true that tetanus is everywhere, it's also true that tetanus cannot live in an environment where oxygen is present. So most wounds do not pose a threat as long as they bleed. There are some wounds of concern, and there is tetanus Ig available for emergencies. Although given the low # of tetanus cases each year considering the high number of adults who don't keep up on their boosters, it's just really not that likely to contract it.

HIB, well, if you check the VAERS (vaccine adverse events reporting system,) babies do still get HIB who've had the vaccine and there have been cases where a child has gotten HIB from the vaccine and died. Meningitis from HIB is worst case scenario, in most people it's a case of the sniffles or a cold. Also, children that are breastfed and not in daycare situations are at a much lower risk of contracting it in the first place.

And my apologies for the incorrect assumption. Often times people who make comments that the good of society counts more than the risk to the child are those who have a vested interest in promoting vaccines.

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I would just like to add that as a Christian I am opposed to specifically the MMR, not because I am afraid of the vaccine (though I do believe there is compelling evidence to be concerned), but because they use aborted human fetal tissue to prepare it. I cannot, absolutely cannot, condone such a practice. So, fear or no fear, it's just not an issue. That's not clean living by an stretch of the imagination...to inject an aborted baby into my baby or myself. Not happening.

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