why vaccinated kids get those diseases

[paradise lost]

Dach for herd immunity to protect the whole herd vaccine uptake needs to be at 95% and since Andrew Wakefields little injection into the issue it's fallen as low as 74% in some parts of the UK with the national average being around 82%. Local health authorities usually have the uptake stats available, but if it's under 95% your random unvaxed person is not safe.

I'm not sure if it's selfishness or a misunderstanding as to how vaccination and infection work, that makes some think they can "worry about it when it happens". DD was not vaxed against chickenpox because it's not offered. Does the varicella vaccine remove the risk of shingles? I have had pox and it was actually not too bad (i was only 6), but my whole family get shingles in old age and many of them suffer for several months a year... They're bringing the varicella vaccine in soon and i'd consider it for DD if it protected against shingles.

Bx

[Trillian]

Bx, as far as I know locally, there have been some cases around here in the past few years of children getting c-pox even if vaccinated and the odd case of shingles in adults (some of which have also had c-pox). Don't get me wrong, I"m not against vaccination by what I've said - heck I have 3 vaccinated children and a baby who was vacced till 6mths, I am choosing not to vaccinate any further for any of them. You just can't assume that even vaxed people are safe or wont become carriers is all my issue was in relation to the OP's 'theory' so I don't have links, just my mind thinking overtime . I won't be relying on herd immunity either because I think that's a pretty poor and lazy way to choose not to vacinate.

And since the chicken pox vaccine has been brought into the discussion, I have come full circle on that one. I was a staunch supporter of it and had my older three vaccinated for it even though it wasn't on the schedule for them, but in light of my own research I don't think it gives a strong enough protection for long enough.

[Lulu]

Um side question - can diseases truly die out?

[Nai]

Um side question - can diseases truly die out?

To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated. Apart from the samples of it that they have stored in 2 sites in the USA & Russia..... biological warfare anyone?

[paradise lost]

That's why it's not been offered in the UK so far Trillian, the NHS cannot AFFORD to blanket-vaccinate with an ineffective vaccine, and i think the varicella vaccine efficacy is the lowest at around 80%, though as i said, of the 20% who aren't immune after vaccination, they do seem (anecdotally to me, because i've not looked for any studies) to get less severe attacks. Unlike Dach i didn't find the pox too bad and certainly not bad enough to go out of my way to vax for (she'd have to be offered catch-up as it wasn't on her schedule), but if the 80% who don't get chickenpox after vaccination ALSO can't get shingles, it really *might* be worth it for DD.

Bx

[paradise lost]

Lulu, yes. Like any living thing, they can become extinct. Smallpox is extinct in the living population, though it exists as a bilogical weapon (allegedly, though it's almost certainly true).

When you get measles, while you have the disease it is multiplying like crazy in you and getting out via liquid droplets (in sneezes, coughs and your breath) to other people. If they inhale it and are not immune (through vaccination or previous exposure) they get infected. However, your body launches an attack on the measles cells and kills them all, and you get better. If enough people are vaccinated that there is no-one for your measles to infect then it dies out.

Polio is on the verge of eradication right now, which is tremendously fantastic news.

Bx

[Phteven]

Diseases can die out like any other living thing.
One example is a disease called The Sweats that killed large numbers every summer in Medieval Europe. Now its disappeared.
Of course it might exist in tiny pocket rather than being totally extinct just as some animal and plant populations do.
Of course human agency makes them more likely to die out - same as other life forms.

[Lulu]

So how did smallpox get eradicated do you know? Why not more diseases? Good to see Polio go, my mum put the fear of gd into me about that, made me watch I Can Jump Puddles.....

and The Sweats, I wonder what happened to get rid of that so long ago?

[Nai]

Smallpox was eradicated through vaccination.