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Week 11 [05.06-11.06.2017] Vaccine controversies



Vaccines are currently one of the most effective means to fight and eradicate infectious diseases. Vaccines are made to resemble a disease-causing microorganism, that’s why they are usually made of killed forms of microbe or its surface proteins. They provoke the body’s immune system to recognize the vaccine as a threat, destroy it, and keep a record of it so it can be easily fight off in later encounter, which leads to acquiring active immunity against the disease.


However,  many people choose not to vaccinate themselves or their children in fear of  developing autism, or sterilization  by “Big-pharma” to limit human population. In 2016 over 20 thousand  kids weren’t vaccinated, because their parents decided not to. Not vaccinating your kid not only puts it in danger of getting sick but also it harms the herd immunity. Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from diseases, which happens when large percentage of population is immune to an infection. The infection simply cannot spread and attack not an  immunized person when so many people are immune to it. Many people who can’t be vaccinated, rely only on herd immunity. For example , people with autoimmunological diseases, small babies, people with AIDS or other diseases which do not let them get vaccinated.


https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2015/feb/05/-sp-watch-how-measles-outbreak-spreads-when-kids-get-vaccinated

In the picture above you can see how herd immunity works, in different percentage of vaccinated people in  society.
Because of the recent trend of not vaccinating kids, diseases which were nearly eradicated reappeared in developed countries. The best example is the measles outbreak which happened this year. Measles is highly contagious and very dangerous disease. It spreads through air by coughs and sneezes and by direct contact. The virus remains contagious for up to two hours on infected surfaces, what makes it incredibly easy to get infected, especially by kids. In January this year , Italy reported more than two hundred cases of measles infection. Romania more than 3400 cases and 17 deaths since January 2016. For herd immunity to work against measles, at least 95% of society need to be vaccinated. That is why most of the measles cases have been found in countries where vaccination levels dropped below this threshold – France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and Ukraine.  There is no treatment for measles but two doses of vaccine prevent infection in the first place. WHO regional director for Europe Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab said: "I urge all endemic countries to take urgent measures to stop transmission of measles within their borders, and all countries that have already achieved this to keep up their guard and sustain high immunisation coverage."

Questions:

Have you heard about the measles outbreak?
What do you think about vaccines?
If you had to choose now, would you vaccinate your child?

Comments

Unknown said…
I have never heard about measles outbreak in Italy. I think it is really stupid if you don't vaccinate your child. People cause their own problems. It's funny that people try to blame vaccine for some illnesses. It's most interesting that people look for alternative solutions. Recently people talked about venom from frog. People use it to increase their immunity. I heard that a few people died after that. People develop vaccines for many years.
Unknown said…
I have never heard about measles outbreak in Italy. I think it is really stupid if you don't vaccinate your child. People cause their own problems. It's funny that people try to blame vaccine for some illnesses. It's most interesting that people look for alternative solutions. Recently people talked about venom from frog. People use it to increase their immunity. I heard that a few people died after that. People develop vaccines for many years.
Magdalena Popek said…
I haven't heard about measles outbreak in Italy, but I've heard about some cases in Poland. I agree with Jacek that not vaccinating a child is really irresponsible. Everything have side effects - even painkillers, aspirin or Fervex. I wonder if people not vaccinating their children give them some pills (those for children) when they are ill? If yes, they are hypocrites.
I like the idea of not allowing unvaccinated children in kindergartens. It's dangerous. Especially if there are kids that can't be vaccinated (there are some contraindications for it).
Unknown said…
I definitely would vaccinate my children and I recommend it to everyone. Those "theories" of anti-vaccinates are worse than fairytales, because there is no moral.
Sometime ago I watched a interview with woman who can't be vacinnated - her organism refused - something like that. She said, that for her, and people with same problem, it is very important that other people are vaccinated, because they are safer because of it. Not vaccinating makes danger to others.
I think that this is sad, that some group of people want to squander years of science and work, just because some "doctor" wrote some article, that was overthrown in 100%.
s14335 said…
I agree with Jacek and Magdalena that not vaccinating a child is really stupid. Vaccines are the most significant factor that contribute to our current life expectancy. One hundred years ago the average life expectancy at birth was just over 50 years. At the same time, if you were ten years old, your life expectancy was close to eighty years. The single most significant factor in a person’s likelihood of survival was ability to survive ten years. Childhood illness wiped out entire families. In the early twentieth century they had just developed treatment for diphtheria, but an average family would only have enough resources to treat one child! Imagine...choose which child to treat!

Today we can protect children from illness. Vaccines have been refined to a point where we can protect a child for more infections by using fewer antigens. Vaccines are safe and well tolerated by all(except those rare individuals who are allergic to their contents).
Vaccines are an incredibly effective tool to prevent illness , death and disability.
Have you heard about the measles outbreak?
Never heard about outbreak in Italy.
What do you think about vaccines?
As we see through many studies that is the only way that can keep us healthy for a long time. Bypassing them is really irresponsible.
If you had to choose now, would you vaccinate your child?
Of course - that is the only option for me.
Unknown said…
Haven't heard about the outbreaks.
I've heard about protests against vaccination and even though I don't know much about it, it is obvious to me that we have to vaccine. It is an invention which greatly reduced population mortality over the years. We wouldn't want to have an outbreak which might decimate whole metropolities would we..
Michał Pycek said…
I also haven't heard about the measles outbreaks, and I totally agree that not vaccinating your children is basically taking the risk for their health as well as not protecting them from the commonly known viruses and infections. In my opinion it canonly harm the immunity system of a little child. Of course I would vaccinate my child, since I believe the nowadays vaccines are way more precise and safe than the ones used 30 years ago.
KamilG said…

I think vaccines are really important method to defend us and our children against threats from the outside. Time showed it wasn't so bad idea to vaccinate people because it stopped few serious illnesses from spreading, and mostly eliminated them. As an example I can obviously say about smallpox/Blackpox. If I had to choose now to vaccinate my child, I'd say yes, better prevent than cure.
Unknown said…
You want to do what is best for your children. You know about the importance of car seats, baby gates and other ways to keep them safe. But, did you know that one of the best ways to protect your children is to make sure they have all of their vaccinations?
When I think about this issue some aspects cross my mind, for example:
1. Immunizations can save your child’s life.
2. Vaccination is very safe and effective.
3. Immunization protects future generations.
4. Immunizations can save your family time and money
5. Immunization protects others you care about.
Unknown said…
In my opinion we should vaccinate our children. I was vaccinated and therefore I have no health problems so I don't understand this conspiracy theories about vaccines which people create now. No vaccination of children is receding in development, I mean that I mean that vaccines are one of the greatest inventions in the medical field and if we don't use them it is unreasonable. Vaccines have saved many people from death so not using them is really a serious threat. I think the bigger problem is the excessive use of antibiotics than vaccines.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I just can't believe it. Scientists working for centuries, inventing vaccines, antibiotics and other cures for eradicating horrible diseases. There was a plan to eradicate measles completely in 2020, but here you go - a bunch of parents with their conspiracy theories. Recently I read a story from a woman who lost her baby because her neighbor decided not to vaccine his son, this baby got infected and died because it was to early to be vaccinated. So when someone decides not to vaccinate their children there's a huge threat to other people, it should be illegal in the first place.
Unknown said…
Well i have never heard about it and i really dont wondering what it is. For me Vaccine is very good invention because stop some virus and help people live more then in earlier years. Of course now our society divide in 2 others group. One of them agree with political about vaccine but the second one realy dont agree with that. For my opinion vaccine is good to prevent some virus.
Unknown said…
I think vaccines are important and we should do it to our children.
They prevent many diseases so I have no idea why we shouldn't do it. If I have a child I would definitely vaccinate him.
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
I would vaccinate my child if I should decide right now. I think it's necessary. I want to protect my child especially in case of measles outbreak. I didn't hear about it before, but I will check all the information when the time will come for this decision. I was vaccinated when I was a child and I don't see anything bad in it.
I haven't heard about the measles outbreak. In my opinion, vaccines are a good way to protect against many diseases. I defenitly would vaccinate my child. I have heard about some cases that a child who was vaccinated had to stay in a hospital, because of complications, but those situations are rare.
Unknown said…
I have heard about the measles outbreak, and it surprised me a lot. I think that vaccination is necessary. As long as it helps people, we shouldn't ignore it. We just have to choose the right vaccination and collect all the information before that procedure. My friend vaccinates her kid, ordering some special vaccination from Belgium, she has learned everything about it, it really costs a lot, but when it comes to your child's health, it is necessary to choose the best variant, I guess. So, yes, I would vaccinate my children.
Unknown said…
I've heard about measles but I didn't realize it's so dangerous.
I think vaccinations are absolute necessity. I don't understand people who had any doubts in terms of "Should I vaccinate the child or not?". If I have a child I would vaccinate him/her right away.
I also like very much the idea of not allowing unvaccinated children into kindergardens. Australia has that law and I think that we should have similar law in Poland.
I agree, I think it's really scary how one article written by some corrupted (he wrote it for money, and it was proven in court) doctor, can do so much harm.
It's really dangerous disease, especially to children with weakend immunity system.
Sorry but not vaccinating your children is irresponsible and puts them in a risk. This is one of the safest method of improving overall defense against given disease, I can't even listen to people that think otherwise, they're plain stupid and irrational with not only lack of any knowledge whatsoever, but denying that knowledge of people that actually DO know better than them.
They very often blame vaccines for "autism", which wasn't diagnosed by any doctor. "I just know it's autism"
What's funny anti vaccine movements often say things like "100 years ago nobody was vaccinated and everybody was healthy", forgetting about the average life expectancy those days
I think that if they don't want to vaccinate themselves it's theirs choice, but they are putting their children in danger by not vaccinating them :/
It's really disturbing for me that most of them choose not to vaccinate they children, but when it comes to vaccinating their dog it's not a problem.
I totally agree that it should be illegal. I can't imagine loosing my child just because my dumb neighbour decided that people in internet chatrooms know better than doctors.
I'm glad you would Wojtek :)
Of course I would vaccinate my child. This is absurd. There is no scientific proof that vaccines are harmful and cause autism or any of those diseases. I think this is middle-age thinking and I can't believe that so many people actually think this is true. We are civilized people. We should know better. I've heard about so many cases of children dying because of their's parents belief. This is so stupid. I have few friends who study medicine and we've been talking about it a lot. Seriously, this is modern medicine to prevent disease from the past. And now we have some of them because of the stupidity of the parents. This is really emotional topic. I just can't believe that people can be that stupid. This is insane. I think vaccinations should be obligatory. We could avoid this stupid conversations.
Yes, such situations are possible, but extremly rare. However I think that it's worth the risk when you think about concequences of choosing not to vaccinate
I fully agree with you, and I must say that this level of stupidity scares me
Unknown said…
As far as I'm concerned it's obligatory to do some vaccinations in Poland. However, I believe it should be possible for parents to decide about every vaccination. Just for now, we don't have choice sometimes and I'm against having it dictated. I was vaccinated only with the required ones, cause my parents were against additional vaccinations e.g against influenza.
Unknown said…
The anti-vaccination movement is one of my favorite subjects. I think they should be launched into space, or at least relocate them to some desert island
. In all seriousness I heard about resurfacing of measles which worries me a lot. No wonder governments want to introduce obligatory vaccinations. It's a really important issue and whenever I hear wise words of anti-vaccination people I think they never even bothered to read a single article on the subject that wasn't written by someone from their circle. If I had a child, I would definitely vaccinate it, and if anyone is has objections he can read tons of scientific publications and data on it.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
I've never heard about measles outbreak and I have the same opinion as a lady above. I've heard about anti-vaccination movements and "specialists" that are publishing their anti-vaccination notes and every time there were 10 comments and many more articles below that ruined their opinion and researches :). In my opinion - vaccination is helpful and there is a big propability to save life in case of disease .
Vyvyan said…
I have never heard about the measles outbreak, but either way i believe that vaccines are necessary and they are helping. People who think otherwise and believe that vaccines are harmful were probably dropped on their heads after birth. Of course if they don't want to vaccinate their children then it's okay. It won't be my child that will die. I'm going to vaccinate my children so that they are safer.

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