Preparing for school means gathering supplies and back packs. It’s also the perfect time to make sure children are up to date on their vaccines. Getting all of the recommended vaccines is one of the most important things parents can do to protect their children’s health.
More than homework might be coming home with your student.
Anytime we bring people together in close proximity, whether in the class room, on the school bus, or during before or after school activities, we share learning, experiences, and our fair share of bacteria and germs. It’s simply a fact of life. Not only is your child exposed during the school day, but when they come home at night you and their siblings get exposed too.
Don’t worry Mom. That’s why we have vaccines.
Vaccines are important for protecting children against serious, and sometimes deadly, diseases. Immunizations create a shield of protection at school and at home by creating something called “herd immunity.”
This is what scientists and medical professionals call a form of immunity that occurs when the vaccination of a significant portion of a population (or herd) provides a measure of protection for individuals who have not developed immunity.
It arises when a high percentage of the population is protected through vaccination against a virus or bacteria, making it difficult for a disease to spread because there are so few susceptible people left to infect.
Vaccines don’t just protect your child. Some diseases, like whooping cough, can be deadly for newborns or infants at home. You can help protect our littlest family members from being exposed to vaccine-preventable diseases by making sure everyone in the family is up to date on their immunizations.
Thankfully, many of us have never witnessed the damaging effects of vaccine-preventable disease. As a result, we may not realize the continued importance of getting everyone vaccinated. In our parent’s or grandparent’s day, they probably had a friend or family member who was adversely affected by diseases including polio, rheumatic fever, mumps, measles, or rubella. Too many had memories of losing a sibling to whooping cough or pneumonia. When my own children were of school age (today they are 21 and 23), this was practically unheard of. We all got vaccinated. As new vaccines came out, we lined up in the nurse’s office and got our shots.
As a result, there was a time, at least in the more developed countries, where these diseases had almost completely disappeared. But today, diseases like measles and rubella are only a plane ride away. Measles epidemics are occurring in Great Britain, and rubella cases have skyrocketed in Japan. Somewhere along the line, the herd immunity broke down due to lessening vaccination rates. When that happens, disease outbreaks reoccur. In the United States, we have seen outbreaks of dangerous and highly contagious diseases like whooping cough (pertussis) when well-meaning parents elected not to vaccinate their children. As recently as 2012, the State of Washington had its worst epidemic of whooping cough in 70 years.
You might wonder how this could be. How did diseases that were almost totally irradiated in the developed world suddenly reappear? Is there something wrong with our vaccines?
Thankfully, the answer is no. Vaccines are even more effective now than back when I was a kid and today we have new vaccines to address additional diseases too. You might want to check your own vaccine card on your next checkup. Don’t be surprised if you might have missed a shot or two. (Below this article you will find the link to the schedule from the American Academy of Family Physicians with the recommended immunization schedule as well as articles from credible medical and scientific organizations documenting the safety of today’s vaccines.)
Vaccines work and the more of us who are immunized, the better they work. Remember the herd?
Back in 1998, a doctor in England (Andrew Wakefield) published a study linking the MMR (mumps, measles and rubella) vaccine to autism and other diseases. It made the global news and later parents, some of them with access to television and other media, publicly blamed vaccines for these illnesses. The result was that other parents shied away from vaccinating their kids and some of those kids got sick with serious diseases that could be been prevented by vaccination. For over a decade, other scientists and physicians tried to replicate Wakefield’s study and time after time, their answers and Wakefield’s did not match. They could not get the same findings. Over a decade later, in 2011, we learned why. Wakefield failed to properly conduct his research and in addition an investigation by the British Medical Journal concluded that he misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study. The end result was that Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May of 2011. Unfortunately, the damage was done. Parents hoping to protect their children by not vaccinating, instead put both their own children and others at risk. Even today, pediatricians report that vaccine safety is one of the most common questions asked by new parents.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)… “Communities depend on high immunization coverage to keep vaccine-preventable diseases from spreading. The more parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, the greater the risk of spreading diseases. You put not only your child but also your community at risk when you decide not to vaccinate.”
That’s a pretty compelling message. Here’s the one that meant the most to me. When a new vaccine came out and our pediatrician asked if I wanted it for my kids, I simply asked him, “did you give it to YOUR kids?” When he said “yes”, I did too.
Smart Science – Good Medicine –Sound Advice
When a child comes down with a vaccine-preventable disease such as measles, whooping cough, chicken pox or the flu, he or she may miss a lot of school while recovering. In extreme cases, you and your child just might end up in the emergency room or with a longer stay at the hospital. In the best case, somebody will need to stay home to provide care and make trips to the doctor.
Vaccines are among the safest and most cost-effective ways to prevent disease for our kids, ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Protecting our children from preventable diseases helps keep them happy, healthy and learning.
As Mom’s, isn’t what we want?
Learn more:
For Parents: Vaccines for Your Children (Centers for Disease Control)
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/parent-questions.html
If You Choose Not to Vaccinate Your Child, Understand the Risks and Responsibilities (WHO)
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/160753/If-You-Choose-Not-to-Vaccinate.pdf
Recommended Vaccine Schedules for Children and Adults (American Academy of Family Physicians)
http://www.aafp.org/patient-care/immunizations/schedules.html
Vaccine Safety (American Academy of Pediatrics)
http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/safety.html
Vaccine Safety: Examine the Evidence (American Academy of Pediatrics) http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/faq/VaccineStudies.pdf
What is herd immunity? (Vaccines Today)
http://www.vaccinestoday.eu/vaccines/what-is-herd-immunity/
Improving Childhood Vaccination Rates (Douglas S. Diekema, M.D., M.P.H., the New England Journal of Medicine) http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1113008
Pertussis in Washington (Washington State Department of Health) http://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/IllnessandDisease/WhoopingCough.aspx
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Add a Comment3 Comments
Wow....this is a brutal read. I don't know where to start. While I appreciate the access to information that the internet provides, I also fear the access to BAD information the internet provides. My first inclination is to believe that Ms. KW has a financial interest in the pharmaceutical industry. However, I realize, that this is actually what most are told to think. I'd like to remain respectful of her post, but I would be doing a disservice by not at least giving her readers something more to think about. While the entire post is based on a classic "company line" when it comes to medicine, I'd like to focus on one particular aspect of the piece. Herd immunity. This term is used as a "sales slick" to encourage and entice the intellectually lazy into a false sense of security. Herd immunity, abbreviated, describes a situation where the number of vaccinated subjects of a given populace increases, so does the protection against a given disease. I believe the current misinformation states that at least 95% of a populace must be vaccinated to maintain "herd immunity". Most people will seek out this information from sites such as the CDC, WHO, etc..., due to their long history of research on disease. However, a simple understanding of vaccination policy, specifically in the U.S. will show you that this is a false theory. When the baby boomers were introduced to mass vaccination programs, the belief was that they would be protected from disease for life. Current research shows that a vaccine's efficacy ranges from 2-10 years max!!! This is why we now have a "booster" program in place. (that panacea is for another discussion) So, doing a little logical thinking, you have to realize that over 50% of our current population is not protected against the diseases for which they were immunized. And it has been that way for 30-40 years without a significant resurgence of disease!! What you have to be aware of is the numbers game that vaccine proponents like to play. 95% immunity required indicates the a much bigger threat than 50% and it makes people lose their minds if they feel their children are in danger. Even the author address the poor, innocent babies at home. Its an empathetic technique to try and lend credence to her claims. What it really does is try "peer pressure" her reading public into doing what she feels is best. The problem is that it is obvious, to someone who works in the medical field, that she is using basic cut and paste journalism to potentially cause further harm to the public she claims to want to protect. I apologize for sounding a bit rash, but I would ask that you look beyond the resources she's posted as most of them benefit significantly from the financial success of pharmaceutical company money. A man made vaccine provides nowhere near the immunity of the actual disease. It would be like the difference between someone telling you about how thrilling a rollercoaster ride is vs. you actually riding the rollercoaster. And please don't try to "apple and orange" that comparison, because, while yes, people die from measles, for example, the mortality rate of measles in the US is only around .3%. Hardly epidemic proportions. I would argue that there are more vaccinated people getting measles then there are people who die from it. I have so much more to say on this....
August 25, 2013 - 6:23pmThis Comment
Great information.
Missie
August 17, 2013 - 6:19amThis Comment
Thanks Missie. Please help share this with the Mom's you know. No one should have to suffer from a preventable disease, especially our little ones.
August 17, 2013 - 9:49amThis Comment