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SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism:
No Finer a Cause
on the Planet"
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AWARENESS
* Families of Sickest Kids Crushed By
Soaring Costs
And State Aid Cuts
*
CARE
* Singing Songs Of Love
* Teacher's Aide Charged With Abusing Autistic
Students
* Santa Lends a Helping Hand
EDUCATION
* Schools Experiment To Maintain Order
PUBLIC HEALTH
* The Great Vaccination Debate Reaches
AWARENESS
Families of Sickest Kids
Crushed By Soaring Costs And State Aid Cuts Love and despair:
[By Debra Jasper, And Spencer Hunt for
The
tml
Don Jamison faces a painful choice: He
can divorce his wife or quit his job to qualify for government health care for
his son, or he can risk not getting the $653,000 in medicine each year that
keeps his boy alive.
Debbie Martin has this tough dilemma: She
can let her 10-year-old autistic son go without care, or she can run up tens of
thousands of dollars in doctor and hospital bills that she can never repay.
Barb Steele knows hard decisions: The
former teacher has already spent her retirement money and cash from the sale of
her house on medical care for her severely ill son. Now she can either buy
groceries or repair the
“We're beyond bankruptcy,” the
In the health-care world of 2003,
thousands of middle-income families throughout Ohio and the nation face extreme
choices like these every day, The Cincinnati Enquirer has found.
Families are caught between soaring
health-care costs and medical miracles that keep seriously ill people alive and
everyone else living longer.
Too rich to get government aid and too
poor to pay extraordinary medical costs, some families are forced to make
decisions that the rest of us can hardly comprehend. They're selling their
homes, cashing in retirement plans and burning through savings to pay for care
their kids so urgently need.
As their insurance runs out or premiums
swell out of reach, some parents are considering divorce, bankruptcy or
quitting their jobs to lower their incomes to get government aid.
The tough choices fall on families as
state and local governments confront hard times by cutting programs that once
helped thousands.
Officials say they had to act. Spending
on Medicaid, the health-care program for the disabled or poor, jumped 40
percent in five years to $228 billion nationwide. In
One person's care cost $1.8 million in a
single year. To offset those costs,
Barb Edwards, director of the Ohio
Medicaid program, says the decisions are heartbreaking but necessary.
“Do we pay more to get more doctors into
the system, or do we cover immunizations for children? Do we help autistic
kids, or do we help the elderly?” she asks. “The reality is we have limited
resources to deal with unlimited need.”
If trends continue, things will only get
worse. Medical costs will continue to climb, people will live even longer with
more serious illnesses, public funding will get stretched further -- and more
families will face more extreme choices every day.
“There is no access to help. No money for
services. Families have to break up just to get help for their sick child,”
says Penny Wyman, director of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies.
“The social services system in
No way to pay
Don Jamison lies awake at night haunted
by fears. There's no way he can pay $653,000 each year for the drugs his
13-year-old son needs to keep hemophilia from killing him.
There's no way that he can't.
Jamison debates quitting the factory job
he's held for more than two decades to qualify for government health care to
pay for the drugs. He wonders if Jennifer, his wife of 16 years, should divorce
him to lower her income and qualify herself.
Maybe, he thinks, the couple should sell
the 136-year-old farmhouse they've so painstakingly restored.
He might make one of those choices, if he
thought it really would help.
But, he says: “If I quit my job and lose
everything, will my son be healthy? No. How does it help the government for us
to go bankrupt? It's not right.”
Until 13 years ago, the stocky
42-year-old Jamison was just another young husband with a slice of farmland and
middle-class dreams in rural
The severe hemophilia that afflicts the
boy is much worse than blood that won't clot on a wound. Without help, Blake
could bleed internally so much that he could become crippled or die.
Jamison wants Blake to keep taking
Advate, a new prescription medicine that would let him grow up much like any
other kid. The drug is safer than earlier, human blood-based medicines that put
people with hemophilia at risk for HIV and other infectious diseases.
“Blake plays the piano, he's a
first-chair trumpet player and he gets straight As,” Jamison says proudly. “He
reads Harry Potter. He does a lot of the things like other kids do, and that's
just what we want for him.”
The Jamisons once thought their private
insurance would cover Blake's medical costs. But like thousands of other
American workers, Don Jamison's health insurance policy had a lifetime limit of
$1 million.
Even with Blake taking older, less
expensive medicine in the early 1990s, the Jamisons' insurance was close to
capping out by November 2000. The couple swallowed their pride and went down to
the county welfare office to apply for government aid.
They hated telling strangers intimate
details about Blake's health, their jobs and their incomes. They hated the
thought of their neighbors finding out they couldn't afford care for their own
son. But they figured the embarrassment would be worth it if they got help.
They never doubted they'd get it. After
all, they had both worked hard and paid taxes all their lives. Yet the county
quickly turned down their request.
With Don's job at a food service
equipment company and Jennifer's work as a customer service representative, the
couple earned $4,641 a month -- far more than the $1,180 income limit for the
help they wanted.
“I can only look at income,” says Pam
Sarver, a referral specialist with the Preble County Job and Family Services
Department, who saw the Jamisons.
She says the income rules force
middle-income families to make terrible choices, but there's not much she can
do.
“They'll ask me, 'If I lose my job or get
divorced, could I get help then?' “ Sarver says. “And I say, 'Yes, you can.' “
Despite their growing frustration, the
Jamisons refused to give up.
When their insurance ran out over the
summer, they bought additional coverage through Aetna. That insurance pays for
their son's medicine, but the monthly premium is $1,389, nearly half their
take-home pay.
The Jamisons then turned to the Internet
and found a series of grants to help cover part of their insurance costs. They
also were just approved for insurance help from a government program they
believed was a long shot.
The Jamisons now have to decide between
the two options. Either way, they know that when the money runs out in a year
or two, they will be back where they started, trying to pay for insurance
that's well beyond their means.
At 13, Blake worries most that his
parents might divorce to qualify for help.
“I'm scared of losing my medicine,” he
confides. “But I'm even more scared of losing one of them.”
The Jamisons say they had no idea how far
they would have to go to take care of their son.
“It's been total devastation,” Don
Jamison says. “It feels like I've been walking down a long, dark hallway
knocking on doors, but no one is answering.”
His co-workers offered to host a
fund-raiser to help, but he just shakes his head.
“What people don't understand,” he says,
“is that we can't sell enough cookies to cover this.”
Left behind
+ Article continues:
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* * *
Alabama Girl Among Top 10 In
National Inventor Contest
[By Holly Hollman.] http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/031220/inventor.shtml
Elkmont, Ala. — There may have been a
time when Jennifer Cech did not think she would be able to brag “how incredibly
talented” her daughter is.
When Katie was born, doctors told John
and Jennifer Cech that she had infantile autism, a condition that can cause
poorly developed communication skills, abnormality in speech pattern, inability
to sustain a conversation, inability to make friends and tantrum-like behavior
when the child's routine is disrupted.
Katie's condition was not that severe.
She remembers having trouble memorizing, and she is almost completely deaf.
“I have hearing aids now,” the
11-year-old Elkmont High School sixth-grader said. “I'm outgrowing the problems
I had learning.”
She has more than outgrown them. She has
surpassed her problems. On Thursday, Katie's teacher, Matt Stockman, notified
her that she placed in the top 10 nationwide in an inventor's challenge.
Katie designed a walking stick that can
growl and provide light. The top of the stick has an animal's head, such as a
wolf.
“His growl can scare animals away, and
the light helps you see if it gets dark,” she said.
She got the idea from a magazine picture
of a staff with an animal's head on it. On her entry form she wrote this
explanation for her invention: “Imagine yourself deep in the dark woods and the
sun is beginning to set. You forgot your flashlight and the matches you packed
in your backpack are wet and soggy. How will you find your way back to camp or
to your cabin? This lighted walking stick is the perfect answer.
“A molded resin animal head in your
choice of characters sits on top of a 2-inch diameter staff. Just below that
animal head, a fabric-covered hand grip provides a comfortable place to grasp
your walking stick during your long hikes. Light shines through inserted
plastic shapes that have been carefully molded into the body of the staff. A
button at the throat of the animal can be pressed to make an animal sound like
a horse snort, the growl of a wolfhound or the deep grunt of a deer. A
night-light-sized bulb provides the light for the walking stick and is powered
by two C cell batteries, which are purchased separately from the walking
stick.”
Katie also drew her creation.
“I started drawing when I was 5,” she
said. “I like to draw half humans, half dogs.”
By placing in the top 10, she won toys
from the company that hosted the contest, Wild Planet, and a chance to be a
child consultant to Wild Planet for a year.
Katie said she enjoys science and art,
but she would like to have a job where she can care for animals. Near her
wooded Elkmont home, she often finds abandoned dogs and cats. She has a Shiatsu
named Max and three cats named Erwin, Aggie and Snickers.
Her family locates homes for some of the
animals that she finds. When the animals are too sick, her mother takes them to
a veterinarian to be put to sleep.
“It's really sad when we do that,” Katie
said. “I try to leave food out for the ones that are OK.”
She has never been bitten and believes
that's because animals trust her.
“I like to come up with names for them
from movies I watch,” she said.
Her mother couldn't be happier that her
daughter has so many interests.
“I'm so proud of her,” Jennifer Cech
said. “She's done so well, and she doesn't mind telling you about it. She gets
excited and will just talk and talk.”
Katie admits she's been “jumpy and
smiling” since Stockman told her that she won. With Katie planning to enter
more art and science contests, she'll probably have plenty to talk about.
* * *
CARE
Singing Songs Of Love
[By Di Caelers in New Zealand.] http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=342&fArticleId=312444
The picture says it all; Leanne Scott
hugs her autistic son Donovan, 13. His eyes speak of his trust for his mother,
but his hands are pushing her away, drawing himself out of her embrace.
That's the story of autism, a world
little understood even by the parents and carers closest to these youngsters
who live in their own little bubbles, totally unaware of the feelings of
others, hyperactive, obsessive and, at their worst, even dangerous.
It's a world that Scott not only did
everything she could to understand, but also committed to financially in a bid
to create a home-from-home for these youngsters who are mostly impossible to
keep at home.
In the process, however, Scott has
committed herself to a lifetime of caring, with very little financial help for
a staff-intensive enterprise that is often the only option available to
children who fall through the cracks of other care institutions.
When Donovan's father died and left them
some money, Hurdy Gurdy House, in Penhill near Eerste River, was opened - and
while it's been a godsend for the young residents, the strain it's taken on
Scott is obvious.
“I think if I'd known at the outset what
I was doing, I would never have done it. It's like trying to set up your own
intensive care unit,” she says bluntly, desperately appealing for government
assistance for a project that is clearly too much for any one person to take
responsibility for.
A visit to Hurdy Gurdy House tells a
story of the lives of its residents they would never be able to articulate.
Heavy barred doors separate them from the kitchen where medication and
potentially harmful utensils are kept.
It's completely undecorated. If there
were ornaments, the residents would simply break them. All the bedroom doors
have reinforced bottoms, evidence of tantrums thrown in the worst moments when
doors have been kicked in.
There are no locks on those doors - and
not only because they might lock themselves in. “They just take them off,”
Scott says, pointing to locked cupboards to prevent the youngsters constantly
unpacking everything they own, another symptom of their condition.
Scott tells of the “very nasty
separation” she experienced on finding out that all was not well with her
apparently carefree, intelligent baby.
First he didn't react to noise, and her
mother, Vaurneen Scott, sounded the alarm and Scott had his hearing tested. It
was fine. He wasn't babbling by nine months, and by 18 months Scott realised
that she couldn't teach him anything.
At the Red Cross Children's Hospital
developmental unit, Donovan was diagnosed with pervasive developmental
disorder, an umbrella term that includes autism.
When Scott had her daughter Charlotte -
when Donovan was 22 months old - she fully realised the impact of living with
an autistic child.
“All my memories of Charlotte as a baby
are of her in her chair on top of the cupboard or on top of the fridge, out of
Donovan's reach. He was dangerous to her, even though he never meant to be.”
It was when she tried to get Donovan into
one of the two schools in Cape Town that cater for autistic children - he was
rejected because he didn't meet the strict criteria - that she realised her child
may not have anywhere to go.
“It's bad enough when you're alive, but
what happens when you're dead,” she
says.
Donovan did spend 18 months at Camphill,
near Hermanus, where he was very happy. But because he cannot be toilet
trained, he again fell through the cracks.
Also, Scott realised that he would never
be self-sufficient enough to stay on the farm where adults live once they
become too old for Camphill.
On November 15, 2001, Hurdy Gurdy House
was opened, named for the singer Donovan's song about the Hurdy Gurdy man.
“It seemed extremely appropriate,” says
Scott of the rambling house where four autistic boys now live, aged from 13 to
their 20s.
“We'd so like to take in more children.
But because we get no subsidy it's very expensive so it's impossible for us to
begin to address the enormous need that's out there.
The fact that all the residents are males
is a reflection of the reality that autism affects many more boys than girls.
They had one girl, but she left when her family emigrated to Britain.
Currently, there is a little light on the
horizon with social services indicating an interest in funding staff training
and committing to psychological support for the staff.
They have also applied for funding for a
professional manager from Autism South Africa, and they want to persuade the
association to take Hurdy Gurdy House under its wing.
“When I started Hurdy Gurdy House I was
on a year sabbatical from the University of Cape Town (she is deputy head of
the statistics department). Then I was on maternity leave with my youngest
daughter Hannah who's 16 months, so I had a lot of time to spare for Hurdy
Gurdy House,” she says.
Hannah's father and Scott's partner of
three years Richard Gaertner ran Hurdy Gurdy House when she went back to work,
but the financial burden proved too much for the family and he too had to
return to work.
Scott is desperate for help to keep open
the doors of this home for riddle children.
For more information, call Scott at 021
638 1187.
* *
Teacher's Aide Charged With
Abusing Autistic Students
http://www.news4jax.com/education/2716392/detail.html#
Jacksonville, Fla. -- A 60-year-old
teacher's aide at a Duval County elementary school accused of abusing several
of her students faces criminal charges and lost her job.
Graceil Jones was arrested last Friday
after investigating reports from school security officers that the teaching
assistant at Pinedale Elementary has struck at least three students, at least
two of them disabled.
According to a police report, the teacher
that Jones was assisting had seen Jones strike an 8-year-old autistic boys on
different occasions, once with her hand, once with a ruler, and once with her
shoe. She also reported the Jones regularly would bend the boy's fingers back
so far that he would fall to the ground screaming.
The teacher said she has seen Jones also
bend a 6-year-old autistic student's fingers back, forcing her to the ground.
Similar abuse was reported on a 9-year-old boy at the school.
“There appeared to be some very poor
decision-making on the part of this employee,” Duval County school district
spokesman John Williams said. “It's a shocking allegation. These are autistic
children, and there's absolutely no excuse to hit them.”
Jones turned herself into police and was
charged with child abuse. She was later released on $2,503 bond.
After Duval County school officials
investigated the charges, the 14-year employee was fired. The district told
Channel 4 that they plan additional training for the remaining teachers at the
school, not only about appropriate behavior, but also about reporting any abuse
they observe to their superiors.
Copyright 2003 by News4Jax.com.
* * *
Santa Lends a Helping Hand
[By Erin L. Boyle.] http://www.nj.com/news/sunbeam/index.ssf?/base/news-1/107199840081030.xml
Pennsville Twp., NJ -- The parents were
unsure how their children would react to Santa Claus, but they need not have
worried: Children everywhere instinctively know what to ask him.
For
Christmas presents.
At the Salem County Autism Support
Group's meeting in the Small Wonders Preschool here recently, it was no
different. Santa -- also known as preschool co-owner Bob Puitz -- came laden
with gifts for the group's children, many who have autism and other
neurological disorders.
A hallmark of those with autism is
difficulty with new situations and experiences. The disorder has a wide variety
of symptoms of varying severity.
“Most autistic children have an
interaction problem with people,” said Nancy Galey, whose son, Ross, 6, was
diagnosed with a mild form of autism two years ago. “Most of them are not good
with eye-to-eye contact.”
Jagger Hitchner, 8, who has Asperger
Syndrome, sat on Santa's lap for a few minutes, detailing all he wanted for
Christmas: a light saber from “Star Wars,” tan Army men and green Army men, a
Buzz Lightyear with a utility belt and a video game.
“I liked him (Santa), 'cause he was in
red,” Jagger Hitchner said afterward.
His aunt, Angel Jackson, comes to every
support group meeting for her twin sister, Diane Hitchner. Jackson said the
event was a success.
“I think it went over well,” she said. “I
was surprised because I thought they would be afraid, but they were all very
receptive to it.”
Because the event was the first Christmas
party the group held, some parents did not know how the children would react
when Santa entered the room. Galey said that many of those with autism are not
aware of others around them and have difficulty adapting to different social
occasions.
While “Santa” sat on a rocking chair in
the middle of the noisy preschool, handing out wrapped toys, many of the
children stood in a long line to sit on his lap. When they received their
gifts, they eagerly tore open the wrapping paper.
Several continued what they were doing
before Santa arrived. One little boy continued running a toy vacuum cleaner,
oblivious to all that went on around him.
The group, sponsored by the Center for
Outreach and Services for the Autistic Community, or COSAC, has been meeting at
the preschool once a month for a year and a half. Kim Sheehan, COSAC group
facilitator, said the group helps parents deal with the joys and difficulties
of raising children with autism and other neurological disorders.
“I think this is good, because it's a
really fun way to enjoy their families rather than coming together for a
problem,” she said of the Christmas party.
As “Santa” left the party Wednesday
evening, he said good-bye to each child. He stopped in the hall, where Jagger
Hitchner was putting his coat on, to go home.
“You behave yourself and you might get
all those presents you asked for,” Santa told him.
Jagger turned and told his mother: “I
promised Santa I'd behave.”
n The Salem County Autism Support Group
meets the second Wednesday of every month at the Small Wonders Preschool on 3
Ferry Road, Pennsville. For more information about the group, contact Diane
Hitchner at 351-6666.
_______________________________________________________
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* * *
EDUCATION
Schools Experiment To
Maintain Order
Based on the theory that
positive behavior has to be mastered before reading and math, elementary
schools focus on disruptive students.
[By Barbara Behrendt for the St.
Petersburg Times.] http://www.sptimes.com/2003/12/21/Citrus/Schools_experiment_to.shtml
Inverness, Fla. - The 5-year-old boy had
only been in Alissa Grace's class for a couple of weeks, but already he had
made a big impression.
He was adept at escape, a skill he could
practice easily since her classroom has three exit doors. Then there was the
compliance issue.
One day last week Grace was focusing on
the boy while teacher aides in her Inverness Primary School classroom worked on
reading and math with her other special-needs students.
“Snack or work?” she asked the child,
whose name - like the names of other children in this story - is not being used
because of his age.
The boy was sliding around the floor on
his hands and knees, appearing to pay little attention to the choice before
him. “Snack or work?” the teacher asked again. “Work,” the child finally replied,
then swung away from his work station for a mad scramble to the snack table.
Grace reached down to redirect the
student, shooting Ed Grein a this-is-what-I've-been-dealing-with glance. Grein
nodded. Already his detective-like job had begun.
Watching carefully how the child responded in
different situations, at different times of the day and with different people,
he could begin to find out what triggers good behavior and what triggers
disruption. Even as the child squirmed in Grace's gentle grip, Grein was
forming ways to make the school experience better - not just for the boy but
for Grace, her other students and the school in general.
That's the kind of effect the disruptive
child can have. In this case, an extra aide had been added to the class to help
Grace deal with this one child's adjustments.
“That impacts every other kid in the
school,” Grein said later.
Actually, the growing problem of
disruptive and dangerous students at Citrus elementary schools is affecting the
entire district. School officials have responded in recent years by adding more
support from the district office. That includes Grein as a district-level
behavior specialist, greater law enforcement presence and more programs geared
at changing behavior.
While the district can't easily provide
statistics that demonstrate the growing problem, anecdotal evidence has been
mounting. Every year recently, elementary school children end up arrested or
involuntarily committed for mental health evaluation. The number of suspensions
has increased.
The School Board has discussed the
problem as it considers the state of existing alternative programs and future
needs. The discussion is timely, since the district is preparing to build a new
and permanent Renaissance Center.
Prompted by board questions about the
needs at the elementary schools, district officials have said repeatedly that
the kind of alternative setting the Renaissance Center provides for disruptive
middle and high school students won't work for the younger children.
“The philosophy at this particular time
is that this superintendent does not think that separating, segregating that
child into an enclosed environment is in the best interests of that child,”
superintendent David Hickey said. “Children learn from other children” and need
the presence of other well-behaved children who can demonstrate for them the
proper behavior.
But tell that to a classroom teacher
pressured to teach a challenging curriculum in a stress-filled accountability
era. That teacher must reach each child in the room while also managing one
student who is ruining the lesson for all. “It is a severe problem, and it
really is tying up a lot of personnel,” said Marlise Bushman, Inverness Primary
School principal.
“You've got this every year. You're
supposed to be teaching, but this one child, he does not want to learn it and
he does not want his classmates to learn it, so your goals are diametrically
opposed,” said School Board member and 30-year teacher Ginger Bryant.
“Something has got to give for my grandchildren and all those who sit in
classrooms who deserve to learn.”
* *
The fifth-grade student was about to cock
and fire his imaginary gun for the sixth or seventh time, aiming it at random
points around the classroom that only he could see needed shooting.
Now and then the boy, who is autistic,
would intone some sound or other, drumming fingers on his desk or his head when
he wasn't busy with the invisible weapon.
Inverness Primary teacher Noreen Clark
was walking other students in her class through their science fair
demonstrations, but her eyes never wandered too far from the boy. Now and again
she would gently ask the class to quiet down and be more attentive to whomever
was up front, but it was clear the admonition was geared for one student in
particular.
Time and again in a nearly unnoticeable
way, she would offer special instruction or reinforcement for the boy while not
skipping a beat with the rest of the students.
Despite the boy's apparent lack of attention,
he did raise his hand to participate. Clark's skillful ability to gently offer
extra help for the child and the boy's willingness to participate were critical
clues to Grein, who was strategically observing from the back of the room.
Earlier that morning, Grein met with
Clark and exceptional student education specialist Bonnie Wise to talk about
the child's recent behavior problems, including an incident where he struck
another student because she irritated him.
The discussion was not unlike many that
happen around the district. It revolved around medication changes for the boy,
who is a special-needs child. The team touched on the need for more involvement
by the boy's mother. They talked about his academic progress and how he has
faced consequences, such as a change in schedule removing recess time, because
he is falling behind.
“He does want to be treated like a
fifth-grader,” Clark said.
“He is speaking that he wants regular
consequences, but he is 11 years old,” Grein said. “He doesn't realize how some
of what he does can come back and bite him.”
While the child is classified as an
“exceptional student” because of his special needs, he still travels through
his school day in regular classrooms with other non-exceptional students. The
approach is called mainstreaming, and it is the goal for as many students as
possible.
“Many of them are very successful,” Wise
said. “We do everything we can to keep the child in the regular environment,
the regular setting.”
Sometimes mainstreaming means a teacher
must deal with an exceptional student's special needs while still serving all
their other students. Grein sees a number of exceptional students acting out
and causing problems, but he provides services to any school or teacher who
needs his help to solve a behavior issue.
When it gets really bad in the classroom,
he is the one they call.
But Grein does not do this work alone. He
enlists whole teams of teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, resource
officers and even support staff in the schools to build a profile of a
student's misbehavior. Then as a team, once they determine what sets off a
problem, he helps identify a solution.
Sometimes students misbehave because it
gets them out of an academic subject that challenges them. Sometimes they're
hungry or their parents were having an argument before they left for school.
Sometimes new medications or a changed dosage can affect behavior.
The team charts all those variables and
then begins to try new approaches to see what works. Parental involvement is a
critical piece in many cases. Sometimes a simple schedule change can be the
answer. And sometimes the final outcome is that the child needs to be placed in
a different setting such as CREST, the district's school for mentally,
physically and emotionally disabled children.
“Our role as educators is to teach them
appropriate behavior,” Grein said. “This gets us to the why of what they're
doing.”
+ Article continues:
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/12/21/Citrus/Schools_experiment_to.shtml
* * *
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Great Vaccination Debate
Reaches Canada
With polio vanquished and
other deadly diseases in decline, many parents are saying no to the needle. But
as more children go unprotected, could some lethal illnesses be poised for a
comeback? PAUL TAYLOR reports
[By Paul Taylor.] http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20031220/VACCINE
20/TPHealth/
Vaccines have become modern-day suits of
armour, protecting humanity from deadly pathogens that used to cut us down in
great numbers. But with many common illnesses now apparently vanquished, some
parents question the need for vaccinating their children, fearing the potential
side effects of the shots more than the diseases themselves.
In part, the anti-vaccination movement
has been fuelled by a growing tendency to question traditional medicine and
embrace alternative therapies.
For Alison Gowan, it was an “easy choice”
not to vaccinate. The 33-year-old music teacher, who lives with her husband in
Kingston, Ont., had given birth to both her boys at home and wanted to raise
them in a “natural” manner. “Vaccination was not the way we wanted to go,” she
says.
Conversations with the midwives who
helped to deliver her babies raised concerns about the long-term health
implications of vaccinations, she says. “I worry about how it is going to
affect our bodies later in life.”
Ms. Gowan is bright, articulate and well
educated. Her husband is a university sociology professor. Her own mother was a
nurse. She feels she knows enough to make the right decision for her boys, who
are now 8 and 10.
“Measles and mumps are pretty minor
diseases when you are in a developed country with good, clean water, decent
food and that sort of thing,” she says. The risk of side effects from the
vaccinations just didn't seem worth it, given “the very, very rare possibility”
of her boys acquiring the diseases.
Such talk strikes fear into the hearts of
public-health officials, who say a vigilant guard against the microbial world
must be maintained.
Dr. Peter Nieman, a
Unvaccinated children are partly
protected by what is known as “herd immunity.” Diseases can't easily spread
through a community when most members act as poor hosts for the pathogens.
But Dr. Nieman warns that deadly diseases
can make a quick comeback whenever vaccinations dip below a critical level.
+ Article continues:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20031220/VACCINE
20/TPHealth/ <- - address
ends here.
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DISCLAIMER: All information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided here is for general information purposes only and is not to be construed as reflecting the knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be construed or intended as providing medical or legal advice. The decision whether or not to vaccinate is an important and complex issue and should be made by you, and you alone, in consultation with your health care provider.