Vaccines are a health necessity

By Lynn Wolfe, Health columnist
July 27, 2002

Now is the time for school physicals, which, for many children, means vaccinations. My kids, like most, hate getting shots. And I wish I could spare them the pain and apprehension vaccinations cause. However, I know that a little discomfort now could save them a lot of suffering later, and could even save their lives, or the lives of their friends and classmates.

There has been a lot of publicity lately about problems allegedly caused by specific vaccines and by too many vaccines overwhelming the immune systems of small children. Searching the internet for vaccine information brings up hundreds of sites, many of which are supported by anti-vaccine groups that raise concerns about vaccine safety. Some of the concerns of these groups have been shown to have merit, but many of them are unfounded.

The use of Thimerisol, a mercury-containing preservative included in many vaccine formulations, has been discontinued due to concerns about its safety. Although there were no documented problems associated with it, public health officials, responding to consumer concerns, decided that with children receiving so many vaccines, they might be receiving too much mercury. Vaccines containing other preservatives, or no preservatives, are now being used.

There have been a few cases in which specific vaccines have caused problems. One of these vaccines is Rotashield, a vaccine against rotavirus, which was shown to greatly increase the risk of bowel obstruction. The use of this vaccine was discontinued in 1999. Another example, the oral polio vaccine, was found to have a 1 in 750,000 chance of causing polio. Most physicians have stopped using the oral polio vaccine because an injected form of polio vaccine is available that cannot cause polio because it uses killed virus.

A report in the British medical journal, "The Lancet", in 1998 created a panic when they reported that 8 out of 12 developmentally delayed children in their study developed autism shortly after receiving the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine. Since then, several larger studies involving tens of thousands of children have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Scientists have also been unable to find any logical explanation as to how the MMR vaccine might cause autism. Moreover, in the United States greater than 90 percent of children receive the MMR vaccine and less than 1 percent develop autism, suggesting there is no connection between the two. Therefore, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control, and other top medical groups have concluded that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism. The most likely explanation for the results of the study in "The Lancet" was that the children were given the MMR vaccine at the same age when symptoms of autism usually emerge; it was a coincidence.

The argument that giving young children too many vaccines overwhelms and weakens their immune systems also doesn't hold up against scientific evidence. The amount of stimulation of the immune system that is caused by a vaccine is less than the amount caused by infection by a cold or flu virus. Most kids have many more viral infections than vaccinations during their early years. Plus, stimulation of the immune system in childhood, either by vaccines or by infections, seems to actually help it function better and be less likely to cause problems such as allergies, asthma, or autoimmune diseases.

There are side effects that can occur as a result of vaccinations. Approximately 1 in 100,000 children will develop a high fever in response to the MMR vaccine. About 3 in 100,000 will develop seizures or breathing difficulties in response to the DTP (diptheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccine. If your child is one of these, then obviously the risk is too high. But to put these numbers in perspective, 11 out of 100,000 women die in childbirth. We don't consider childbirth to be a widespread health problem and it affects more people, in more drastic ways, than vaccines do.

Colorado has one of the lowest rates of vaccination compliance in the country, and that puts all of us at risk. The incidences of whooping cough (pertussis) and measles are higher in Colorado than in other states because fewer children are vaccinated against these diseases here. It is not only the unvaccinated kids who are at risk; vaccines don't always "take," meaning that some kids who have been vaccinated are still susceptible to contracting the diseases. Also, effectiveness of certain vaccines can wear off over time, putting adults who received vaccinations as children at risk of contracting diseases. So children who are not vaccinated put the whole community at risk.

Many of the diseases we routinely vaccinate against don't seem real to parents these days because they haven't experienced them first-hand. They haven't seen children crippled by polio or become deaf or die from measles or die from whooping cough. So, exposing their healthy children to the risks of vaccines may seem unnecessary, because they think their kids will never get these diseases. The truth is, these diseases are still around, but they are not as widespread as they used to be because most children have been vaccinated against them for many years. However, if the vaccination rate drops, we will experience an increase in the incidences of these diseases. As I mentioned above, we are seeing the beginnings of this trend already in Colorado. So, do what is right for your children, and for the community as a whole and keep your children's vaccinations up-to-date.

For reliable, balanced information about vaccine safety, go to the Centers for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov/nip, the National Network for Immunization Information at www.immunizationinfo.org or the Immunization Action Coalition at www.immunize.org.

Lynn Wolfe has a bachelor of science in exercise physiology from Boston University and a Ph.D in molecular physiology and biophysics from Vanderbilt University. She lives in Broomfield, and is currently raising her two young children and teaching part-time at Front Range Community College. She can be reached for questions and comments at lynnwolfe@excite.com.