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Show PARAD E H-E- ALT A 0 The American Academyof Pediatrics now recommends 21 vaccinationsfor children by the time they're in the Don't Worry About ‘@& first grade. But questions are being raised about the need and therisks. PARADE's doctortakes a lookat the issues: Vaccinations * BY DR. ISADO RE ROSENFELD HERE WAS A TIME WHEN parents took their children to the doctor for one or two shots, and that was it. Adults were vaccinated against smallpox and had a tetanus booster once ina while. Vaccinations were a fact oflife. No one questioned the need for them,andthere were few if any laws making them mandatory. Howtimes have changed! Your children are now candidates for as many as the diseases it allegedly prevented over the years already had begunto disappear, due largely to bettersanitation and hygiene. Reply. Diseases don’t just fade away. Although improved living standards and more sophisticated medicalcare (especially antibiotics) haveresulted in a lower death rate for many communicable OCH ATA AGITIe Should Receive 21 shots spread over a few months or years—andvaccinationi: nolongerjust kid stuff. The most significan change, however,is one of attitude. Manyparents have §| read the publicationsby ant | vaccination groups listing dangers of immunization andchal. lenging the legislation that whoopingcoughin the early 1970s b cause ofa fear ofthe vaccine’sside effects} the disease spread dramatically. In Ja whooping-cough cases rose from 400 ia 1971-74 to 13,000 between 1975 and 1979. In Russia, diphtheria casesjump from 900 a year in 1989 to 50,000 in 19 after a drop in the vaccinationrate ofchil: dren and fewerboostershots for adul Objection. Vaccines can be unsafe} especially when they are combined. Reply. Serious permanentconse: quencesof vaccination are rare and no wherenear the risk of contracting th disease against whichit protects. The vast majority of cases with dire out: comesattributed to a vaccine are un substantiated. Objection. Vaccines do not alway: work. Reply. No vaccineis 100% effective] makesthese shots mandatory. So, although the immunization § ofchildren in the U.S.is at an alltime high, anxious parents now ask whethertheir child wouldn’t be better off taking his chances rather than being vaccinated. Whilethere is some uncertainty aboutvaccinationin lay circles, there is no disagreement whatsoever among doctors aboutthecritical need to vaccinate every child against the diseases that can cripple or kill. Practicing pediatricians, as well as government diseases,they still are very much with us. In fact, their lower incidence has beencorrelated with vaccination. Smallpox, for example, has virtually disappeared, and polio is much less common in this country than ever before. In Britain, Japan and Sweden, when fewer children were immunized against IS A LIST OF THE SHOTS IR Mech eet Cab Col ete c ema RM RO acme MaLels to any of the vaccine'’s ree URCmeleeh ac hm health agencies, unequivocallysupport it. NOU ena UMech Coan area) ‘THE MAIN ISSUES. Here are some ofthe principal arguments against vaccination and how most doctors answer them: Objection. The overall effectiveness of vaccination has not been proved. Most of or you can community take your child health local public-health clinic. to ¢ reat ol The latter OMI Cn eLetter ae nominal cost. No child needs to g Viele ccm Um rte mer cel and some vaccinated persons do com down with the disease—butfar less o} ten than in unvaccinated populations. Objection. Theincidenceofvaccine: preventable diseases has decreased sd muchthatit is no longer necessary tq immunize againstthem. Reply. These diseases,though reduced in number,still exist and still pose a threat] Also, immigrants from countries w! vaccinationis not practiced according td U.S.standards can bring these diseases with them.Finally, the only wayto p those who are allergic to the vaccines don’t respond to them is to maintain a higt level of immunity in the community. So I'm onrecord as urging the con: tinuation of universal vaccination—and the legislation now in place to make i continued) PAGE 10 - JANUARY 9, 2000 - PARADE MAGAZI |
