By Patricia de Urioste, MD
As printed in Around Town Publishing, September 2007
Why should I have my child immunized when I hear from some people that they can cause problems and when I go on the internet I read about scary side effects? What makes our society push to have everyone vaccinated when I don’t see any of these diseases around? If my child doesn’t get immunized and everyone around him is, isn’t he safe? Many stories from the past draw a vivid picture of how severe these illnesses can be–Charles Dickens and the series “Little House on the Prairie,” to name a couple. These and other stories are replete with accounts of people dying of pneumonia, tetanus, meningitis, polio, small pox, and other diseases that are now vaccine preventable. Also, many of the third world countries have a very high mortality rate due to illnesses that we can now avoid with proper vaccination.
Many children who were not adequately immunized have been harmed. Many of these children are from families that do not take advantage of preventative health care. One of the reasons that we have a longer life span and are healthier in the U.S. is that we do not have the quantity of severe illnesses seen in other countries. Some of the vaccines prevent bacterial disease; others are directed toward viral illnesses. We also have immunizations that help prevent certain types of cancer. Let’s look at a few of these. The DTaP is made up of 3 separate vaccines: Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis. Diphtheria was a very common bacterial illness in the past in which a thick covering developed over the back of the victim’s throat, leading to breathing problems, paralysis, heart failure and death. This illness is spread from person to person. Tetanus (Lockjaw) enters the body through cuts or wounds. It causes a painful tightening of the muscles, including the jaw, keeping the victim from swallowing or opening his mouth, often resulting in death. Pertussis (whooping cough) causes severe coughing spells that does not allow one to get enough oxygen to vital organs, leading to seizures, pneumonia, brain damage, and death. One out of every twenty infants who gets pertussis will have one of these severe consequences. Since we have not had a good vaccine for people over 7 years old in the past, the incidence of pertussis is skyrocketing. Influenza is a highly contagious viral infection that is spread by coughing or having close contact with others. According to the CDC, 226,000 people are hospitalized and 36,000 die every year in the U.S. from the flu. Hepatitis B is a viral infection which can result in a chronic liver infection that often ends in liver cancer. There are many other vaccines that we use routinely in our country that prevent deadly and debilitating illness.
If your children are not immunized you are leaving them at risk of catching a disease that could permanently damage or even kill them. These and other vaccine preventable diseases are still around, even if they are not obvious, in some of your child’s contacts, in the food we eat, and in our environment. Because of this, your family is not immune to these illnesses, even if everyone around you is adequately vaccinated. Immunization of our country’s population helps protect all of us, including those who are most vulnerable, such as the very young and old. It stops epidemics from occurring that would devastate our society.
As many people are aware, the internet is not only a great site for valuable knowledge, but also for faulty information. A more comprehensive understanding of vaccines and the diseases that they help prevent can be found at http://www.immunizationinfo.org/. The decisions that you make concerning vaccination are some of the most important ones that you will ever make for your family!