According to a recent article in Pediatrics, more than 1 and 10 parents use an alternative vaccination schedule than what is recommended by the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices General Recommendation Work Group (GRWG). The most commonly delayed vaccines include H1N1, seasonal influenza, Varicella, Hepatitis B, and Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR). One would assume that a delay in vaccinations could be attributed to financial barriers to accessing health care; however, these beliefs were most common among parents with higher incomes.
Parents that subscribe to the alternative vaccination schedule believe that delaying vaccine doses will result in fewer side effects, is safer for their children, and that many of the recommended vaccinations are not necessary. There is diminutive scientific evidence to support these claims; on the odd occasion an individual experiences an adverse event they often demonstrate immunodeficiency. Moreover, 1 in 3,000-4,000 children vaccinated with MMR experience febrile seizers, scientific evidence does not support Hepatitis B vaccinations causing Multiple Sclerosis, and the Institute of Medicine issued a reporting stating that there isn’t a link between vaccines and Autism (signs of autism appear around the same time many vaccines are administered which has led many to believe that there is a correlation).
The GRWG recommendations are based on scientific evidence from the expertise of health-care providers, public health officials, and the Immunization Action Coalition Group. GWRG vaccination schedule recommendations are influenced by age-specific risks for disease, age-specific complications, age-specific responses to vaccinations, and potential interference with the immune response by passively transferred maternal IgG. GWRG recommends administration of vaccines as close to the recommended intervals as possible; delaying recommended vaccines are associated with a significantly increased risk of contracting and spreading vaccine preventable diseases. Additionally, fully vaccinated individuals are at risk of vaccine preventable diseases if they reside in a community with large proportions of under-immunized individuals.
References:
Stratton, K., Ford, A., Rusch, E., Wright, C. (2011) Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Washington DC: Institute of Medicine National Academies Press
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccine Safety . Retrieved October 19, 2011 from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/MMR/MMR.html
Dempsey, A., Schaffer, S., Singer, D., Butchart, A., Davis, M., and Freed, G. (2011). Alternative Vaccination Schedule Preferences Among Parents of Young Children. Pediatrics.
I find this to be rather fascinating - especially given that it's more prevalent in more educated, wealthy parents. And, of course, I absolutely agree with you. The vaccination schedules are based on extensive research which has determined when is the best time for a child to be vaccinated for a certain disease (or diseases). One shouldn't stray from this schedule unless he/she has found convincing scientific evidence to suggest otherwise (which, it sounds like, is very difficult to find).
ReplyDeleteI read an article that defended the use of vaccines due to herd immunity. The article raised an interesting point about how the recent outbreaks of pertussis could be coming from a lack of herd immunity. While this article isn't from a scientific source such as PubMed, it does have some very good information.
ReplyDeletehttp://kschang.hubpages.com/hub/Herd-Immunity-Why-NOT-Vaccinating-Your-Children-Can-Hurt-Other-Children
In 2009 a study showed that herd immunity provides only partial protection, at best, against pertussis; and that unimmunized kids are 24x as likely to get pertussis as those who are immunized. That is the same risk increase that goes with texting while driving.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19482753
It's interesting how one man's paper has altered the view on vaccines so much, especially the MMR vaccine. I think parents need to be allowed to ask questions and raise concerns but also need to be encouraged to listen and consider what research is backing up the vaccination schedule. And maybe as we learn more about autism and what causes it, vaccines will no longer be considered the culprit (the current stance is that the timing and amount of vaccines trigger autism, no longer what is inside the vaccine).
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ReplyDeleteAugh! I just posted a comment about people fearing the side effects of vaccines and such on another post. I think this issue is becoming a bigger concern because of the internet and people have access to find the links of autism to vaccines, which i think is somewhat of a more obscure connection and would be much harder to determine the cause of. But things like Guillain-Barré Syndrome or other side effects that happen SO infrequently really frighten people into thinking a vaccine is not so good. I feel it is getting to be more and more important to emphasize the importance of vaccines and why they help and explain that a 1 in a million chance of getting some serious side effect, or a 1 in 110 chance of getting autism is greatly outweighed by how many lives vaccines save (i.e. mumps, small pox, rubella, spanish flu vaccines; how many lives did they save vs how many lead to negative effects?) I was really surprised to read that such cases of an alternative vaccination schedule was more prevalent in educated parents!
ReplyDeleteSo i also posted a video on my other comment of Penn and Teller which talks about vaccinations and autism and is a kind of fun approach to shed some light on the issue...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdZTZQvuCo
What is mind boggling to me and makes me the most sad is that the parents who think they are doing the best possible thing to protect their children by not vaccinating them or altering their vaccination schedules are, in turn, putting their children and a number of other children at extremely high risk of contracting and spreading vaccine preventable diseases and death.
ReplyDeleteObviously this is very controversial topic. The article below mentioned an interesting point; that many parents who don't want to put their child at "risk" by vaccinating them are unaware of the danger of disease. They might not have been exposed to the extreme sickness and death caused by diseases because some devastating diseases have disappeared.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-vaccinations-ess.html