http://www.statesman.com/editorial/content/auto/epaper/editions/thursday/editorial_f361a42376f1308600bb.html

Child immunizations an issue of public health

Editorial Board

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Thursday, July 17, 2003

The leader of a group that opposes vaccinations for children says she is comfortable with the risk to her child. But the issue is the risk to others who could be infected if her child gets sick.

Vaccinations for polio, diphtheria, rubella, measles, mumps and other diseases are as much to protect society as the individual. And the overall good of the required immunization of children is unquestioned: The world has benefited immensely from vaccinations, and deaths from infectious diseases are a small fraction of what they once were.

Texas legislators lost sight of that larger picture when they passed a bill allowing parents to opt out of the vaccination requirement for "reasons of conscience." Texas imposes many child health requirements on parents, from nutrition and protection from physical harm to safety in cars and mandatory education. Immunization against infectious diseases should be no less a parental requirement.

Legislators, now in special session, should turn back the clock on the anti-vaccination law and pass a new bill requiring children be immunized before enrolling in school. Texas already has one of the worst records in the country for immunization rates, and the Legislature should be helping to prevent disease, not abetting it. Allowing parents to opt out of immunization because they don't like it puts everyone else at risk.

Certainly, there are children who suffer side effects from immunization, but rarely are they serious. Occasionally, a child is injured in a car seat, too, but that doesn't argue for abandoning the law that saves thousands of lives. There is a greater good in requiring immunization and a greater danger in allowing parents to forgo it.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among the world's premier health organizations, says the U.S. vaccine supply today is the safest and most effective in history. Years of testing and monitoring ensure the safety of immunization of children.

Serious side effects from immunization range from one in thousands to one in millions, according to the CDC. In a two-year period, only one death was even possibly associated with a vaccination. Immunization has virtually wiped out measles, an infectious disease that once caused pneumonia in one of every 30 people and killed two of every 1,000 who contracted it.

Immunization has saved thousands of lives, and there is little evidence that vaccination contributes to serious illness or death. The theme for the National Infant Immunization Week in the spring was "Love them. Protect them. Immunize them."

Legislators must have missed that message when they passed the bill allowing parents to send their children to school without immunizations.

On statesman.com

State Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, supported the child immunization exemption bill that passed in the Legislature. She defends the bill and explains its effects at statesman.com/othertakes.

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