May 30, 2003
Reported by Shelley Brown

The tragic death of a local 4-month-old earlier this month has many scared tonight. The infant's parents think a vaccination may have led to the child's death and that's causing many other parents in our area to decide not to get their children innoculated.

But as one expert tells KPLC, that's a risky decision. Vaccinations have reduced the number of diseases, outbreaks of diseases and in some cases, unnecessary deaths. "If we don't vaccinate our children and protect them against these vaccine preventable diseases, we'll have more problems," says Dr. B.J. Foch.

Region Five Medical Director Dr. B.J. Foch says children attending day care and school are required to get immunizations, and he says there's a good reason for it.  "If there's certain pockets of individuals let's say that aren't vaccinated against measles, and we have an individual from overseas that comes from a country where their immunization rates aren't as good and they've not been vaccinated against measles, they come into that community that child that the parent decided didn't get the measles vaccine, they would be susceptible to receiving measles and then we would possibly have a measles outbreak."

But some parents are worried there might be side effects. Two weeks ago, a Lake Charles area infant died shortly after being innoculated. The parents thought the vaccine caused their baby's death. Doctors say that's highly unlikely.  "Generally, the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks," says Foch.  

"If it's an infant that was four months of age, the leading cause of death in infants one month to one year of age would be SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome," says Foch.  And Foch says studies show vaccinations are not a risk factor for SIDS. The cause of this latest child death has not yet been determined.