http://www.unison.ie/tuam_herald/stories.php3?ca=34&si=673387&issue_id=6730

 

Galway doctor issues vaccine timebomb warning

 

UP TO 200 children could be at risk of losing their lives to easily preventable diseases if parents do not vaccinate their young children against measles, mumps and rubella, a leading paediatrician has warned.

Ireland is facing a time-bomb, with potential tragedy in store for hundreds of families if rates of MMR vaccinations do not rise, Portiuncula paediatrician Kevin Connolly says.

He points to a lack of scientific basis to claims of links between the vaccine — which prevents measles, mumps and rubella — and autism, and says he has grave concerns regarding the alternative singly administered shots.

A member of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee of the Irish Medicines Body which licenses vaccines, Mr Connolly says he is worried Ireland could be facing a measles epidemic within the next five years.

Outbreak

With the current low level of uptake among Irish parents, up to 100,000 Irish children could be vulnerable to an outbreak in five years time.

All three diseases have potentially devastating consequences for children, but Mr Connolly believes that with between 60 and 70 per cent of children receiving the jab, between 100 and 200 children could die from measles.

“The sad thing is it is possible to eradicate measles along with mumps and rubella if a sufficient number of children are vaccinated in the same way we have eradicated small pox and polio in Europe,” he says.

In a career of treating children which spans more than 30 years, Mr Connolly points out that measles can cause convulsions, pneumonia, meningitis and even death.

Mumps can also cause a strain of meningitis — which itself can lead to brain

damage — deafness, and male sterility.

Women exposed to rubella in the first three months of pregnancy can go on to give birth to children suffering serious problems including deafness, blindness, mental handicap, and congenital heart problems.

Concerns

He acknowledges the concerns parents have in relation to the alleged link between the jab and autism, but points out that the World Health Organisation, the US-based Centre for Disease Control, and the Irish Faculty of Paediatricians have all examined in detail claims of a link, but have found none.

But he has grave reservations about popularly promoted proposals to administer the vaccines in their single components.

He says that the recovery time between each single jab leaves the child vulnerable to illnesses for a longer time, and studies have shown that the more visits parents have to make, the less likely they are to bring their children in the first place.

He also has concerns about the vaccines themselves — while the single component anti-measles and anti-rubella vaccines have been shown to be very effective, the anti-mumps vaccine was shown only to be effective in 12 per cent of children, and has not been licensed for use in Ireland.

Side-effects

“No vaccine is 100 per cent safe. Sometimes children will suffer minor and transient side-effects such as soreness at the site of the injection, high temperature, rash, mild measles-like symptoms, or swelling of the glands after receiving the MMR vaccine.

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.