Great Article i found on Vaccinations

[Schmickers]

Hmmmm, such an emotive topic isn't it? To me, I can understand on a personal level why people choose not to vaccinate, but believe that the whole society benefits from the process.

Yes, Shannon, I agree. You are absolutely right. The push for all children to be immunised is a classif public health policy, in that it caters to the overall health needs of society, as opposed to looking at the health needs of the individual.

Absolute baloney to say that diseases such as measles and mumps can be eradicated with proper hygiene! LOL, that's funny. Small pox was going to wipe itself out hehehe.

This is an often misunderstood facet of the anti-immunusation argument.

No one argues that good hygeiene will eradicate any vaccine-preventable disease. What we do know, however, is that there is a clear correlation between the mortality rate of infants and children with vaccine preventable diseases, and community standards of hygeiene and health. In other words, good hygeiene prevents the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, as well as preventing the spread of general diseases such as gastroenteritis and influenza. The result is children who are generally healthier, as they spend less time with fevers, vomiting or diahrroea in their lives. We also have better standards of nutrition - we eat more fresh food, we have sufficient food for our children, etc. The result is children who are healthier. As a result, their bodies are much more able to deal with a vaccine-preventable disease such as measles or smallpox.

In examining the immunisation issue, we have to consider what gives the greater benefit, the use of childhood immunisation programs, or allowing children to catch these diseases themselves. A century and a half ago, these diseases killed many, many children, and it made sense to push for immunisation for all children to protect children from these diseases. However, even before the immuniation programs were introduced, there was a marked decrease in the number of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. This correlated with improving community hygeine and nutrition standards, and improved access to health care.

Notwithstanding that, if we assume immunisation is universally safe, you could still mount an argument for universal immunisation for all children. But this is not the case. There are still children, every year, who have massive allergic reactions to immunisations. Other major immunisation reactions are increasing as well, and while researchers have not been able to causatively link autism and immunisation, there is enougyh anecdotal evidence now that the latest research into immunuisation accepts that the link exists and is calling for more research to try and identify the cause.

Given the facts, and that in both cases (whether to immunise, or not) there are risks, it is essential that each parent look at the research - from both sides - and make an informed decision.

My mum is a clean freak and trust me when I say that hygeine wasn't an issue in our house. Didn't stop me from getting the diseases though, that's because handwashing and hygeine cannot stop viruses from spreading (especially airborne ones).

How old are you Shannon? The main components of the immunisation schedule have been in place for quite some time. Were you immunised, or did your parents choose not to? Either way, the fact that you caught these diseases - and have survived without any ill effects, and no doubt have a strong immunity to them - is living proof that there is a case for not immunising.

And although I can say that I had mumps and measles and there's nothing wrong with me, there were hundreds of children who died from measles. Hundreds and thousands who went deaf, or were rendered infertile through these diseases. Now days we have a handful of cases of measles every year instead of a handful of children dying from it.

I agree. But these diseases are not prevalent in babies and infants any more. Most parents in Australia keep their babies at home, or have them cared for by trusted relatives. There is also not the degree of social contact for young babies and infants that there was decades ago. These diseases spread around schools and day-care centers., now, in older children. There is no reason why the schedule could not be examined now, in the light of new epidemiological research, and adjusted. Mumps is a benign disease - unless you are a male, in which case you have a slight chance of developing an orchiditis which could render you infertile. So why vaccinate girls for it? Vaccinate boys. And wait until they are 4 or 5, so that they are old enough that their immune systems only need one dose to develop an immunity.

I can understand how the small number of people who choose not to vaccinate can feel comfortable in not doing so, that their children probably won't get sick from the diseases, and that's because the majority of people do vaccinate. If not for the majority pulling their weight on this one, choosing not to vaccinate would result in the diseases being much more prevalent and children getting sick and dying.

While most of your post was well though out Shannon, this last paragraph was just a thinly disguised way of saying that parents who choose not to immunise are responsible for other children getting sick. Your deliberately inflammatory language (not "pulling my weight"? Really?) I actually find offensive. I think, given this, that this thread should be monitored by the mod team, and I have reported it accordingly. But to address your concerns, if any of my children were ill with one of these diseases, I would have no hesitation in isolating them. The cold, hard facts are, in my job as a children's nurse, in the last six months, I have seen two child care centers shut down for a fortnight because of pertussis (whooping cough) outbreaks. And in both cases, the children who caught the initial infection and proceeded to pass it in to the others - were fully immunisaed against it.

If you have researched the information and made an informed decision to immunise your children, then I applaud you, and uphold your right to do so. I expect, in return, that you will uphold my right, based on the evidence at hand, not to. But I would urge you to do your own research, Shannon, because immunisation is not the silver bullet that many, including you, seem to believe.