Difficult choices. Measles, Immunisations & Those With No Choice.

 

photo by Sanofi Pasteur via PhotoRee

Today Sky reported that during the first three months of 2011 we had almost as many cases of Measles than we did in the whole of 2010. Worrying figures! The rise is being put down to people not having their children immunised against the disease which can, in cases, be serious enough to cause death.

I am a strong supporter of the Save The Children UK campaign “No Child Is Born To Die“. Campaigners are frantically drumming up support so that vital changes can be made at the Global Immunisation Summit next month. Changes that will literally save millions of lives. Parents in some areas of the world are watching their children die needlessly because vaccinations just aren’t available for them. A sobering thought.

These two cases are world apart and yet my views are conflicted. I firmly believe that children across the globe should have access to these life-saving jabs. I also believe as a parent you have to do what you believe is right for your children. A curious one. The MMR jab became something to be feared after the legendary (and later discredited) paper linking Autism and MMR was published, with some parents opting for single jabs and some deciding not to immunise at all. It was a fraught and worrying time for many parents and in my opinion, the way the whole issue was publicised and poorly handled in some quarters didn’t help. I worked for the National Autistic Society at the time and I can’t tell you the amount of phonecalls we received looking for more information, and in some cases reassurance that parents hadn’t “caused” autism by taking their children to be immunised.

Both of my children have had their jabs, there was never a doubt for me. These potentially life-saving injections are available to my family and we made the decision to follow the NHS program (more info on the NHS program can be found here). This is our choice and the the choice all parents have; but many are now shouting down parents who chose/choose to do differently. Parenting is not cut & dried, and not all choices are easy ones.

This BBC news story may be of interest for anyone who is unaware of what the MMR / Autism debate was about.

It’s a tough one. I campaign for change for those who are crying out for vaccinations, I chose to immunise my boys and support the NHS immunisation scheme, but I am also a Mum and fully understand a parent’s concerns about vaccinations and support their rights to choose what they feel is best. Is there a right answer; a right way forward with this?

A perplexing one for me, so early on a Saturday morning. I’d love to hear your thoughts, did you chose not to vaccinate and are you still happy now with that decision? If you did vaccinate – are you confident now you made the right choice? I’d love to hear your points of view.

*Curly&Candid is about being Candid but not about bullying, please respect other people’s views*


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17 comments

  1. We all want to do what’s best for our kids, but sometimes media hype can make choosing the right path more complicated than it should be. We take the jabs to protect our kids & also in the hope it will help others by helping prevent the spread of potentially life threatening disease. As far as the risk side is concerned there is always risks in life. We take them everyday so we put this decision in the same category as should we cross the road. 🙂

    1. Too true. Media hype certainly didn’t help when the whole MMR debate started out and added confusion and worry at what was already a fraught time for some. Balanced information is must more useful at such times.

  2. I totally agree with what you say. Everyone should have a right to choose. But if the parents choose not to have the MMR then they should be responsible enough to have them immunised independantly with single vaccines.
    When my daughter was a baby there was a big measles outbreak in the town where I lived and I was so cross as I couldn’t protect my daughter as she was too young.
    Thank you for raising this issue.

  3. I tend to take a hard line on this one. While I agree parenthood is fraught with difficult choices, this to me is a no brainer. like Kizzy I was really angry when my kids were pre vaccine and measles rates were rising as I couldn’t protect them. I generally respect every parent’s right to choose, but not on this issue.

    I’m not saying parents should glibly allow their kids to be vaccinated without knowing about the vaccines and the risks involved, but to not vaccinate is irresponsible for your own kids and all their friends.

    An emotive subject for this time in the morning!

  4. This is such an emotive topic and sometimes even voicing an opinion gets you into a lot of trouble, so I comment with some tredpidation! I remain extremely cross with the way the MMR debate was handled – needlessly causing a lot of parents a lot of worry, mainly due to the scare-tactics of irresponsible media. But I do think parents need to remember that the decision they are making is not just about their child. While immunisation rates remain as low as they are, there is real risk of an outbreak. Should that happen, it isn’t only the children who’s parent decided not to immunise them who are at risk. Like Nicki says, it is the very young, too young to be vaccinated, and the sick children too poorly to cope with such a vaccination.

    Whilst I am a huge supporter of individual parent choice, where vaccinationn is concerned I do waiver back and forth on the subject. On the one level, I would be very angry to be told my child MUST have a treatment which I was unsure about. On the other, I feel that there is a wider social impact to the decision. My family live in Australia, and the Nursery they were looking at for their little girl required that children have their vaccinations as a condition of entry.

    When my babies were all under 1, I did worry constantly when I heard of measles outbreaks in various places. My heart goes out to those who’s children can never be vaccinated, who rely on others to get the protection their child needs. I do hope that when parents take this decision, they think very carefully of the wider implications of their decisions.

    1. A great reply. It’s one of those debates where you can see every side, and every side makes sense. The bigger picture is probably the important thing here – but if I truly believed my children were at risk, would I consider the big picture or not? I’m not sure. The person I am now has complete faith in the NHS program, parental choice and fighting for those who have no chance for immunisation. If I was in a different place, a different situation… would I feel the same? I have no idea.

  5. I have a boy and I refused the MMR jab, but I wanted him immunised so I opted (and paid ) for single jabs. He’s due his boosters, and will be getting the single jab again.
    The thing I’m cross about is the manufacturers have stopped making the mumps vaccine – and I’m thinking it’s due to outside pressure to ensure all parents take up the MMR. I strongly believe in parental freedom of choice and if I choose to have my child immunised with single vaccines I would like to think the option is there, should I so choose.
    Vaccines are important, however they don’t stop you getting the diseases. I was vaccinated against everything and still got whooping cough (extremely badly), measles and german measles!

    1. I have to say I know little about the single jabs and the availability of them. My two had the combined jab, but I must look into the single jab, purely to get a better picture of the alternatives available. It’s an interesting and very involved topic.

  6. We vaccinate. However I am not happy with how many in one go, we put into our tiny babies bodies. My daughter reacted horribly (temperature of 104, febrile convulsion, trip to A&E for fluids and monitoring, not just your usual slightly feverish, grumpy baby kind of reaction) to her 12 month HiB, PVc, Men C shots. It turns out so did 6 other babies given the PVC vaccine (to prevent pnuemaccocal disease) of that batch. We had to fill forms in, send a statement to the PCT and it was not fun. So when my health visitor informed me that at 12 months, my son, would get not only the HiB, PVC and Men C, but the MMR too, (which is a live vaccine) we decided, after our scare with my daughter, we would seperate them out. He has had all the vaccines, just one at a time, and he will have the MMR on it’s own, the 3 in 1 vaccine, this coming week. My GP was happy to do this for me, he knows I’m a nurse, that I’m not just reacting to what I’ve read on the internet, or in the papers, he knows how frightened we were when our daughter was so ill, he also knows I’ve nursed a baby who was brain damaged by meninigitis and eventually died, and that my own brother nearly died of mumps, at aged 24 (we weren’t given the mumps vaccine, we lived abroad for most of our childhoods, I’ve had mumps, the disease, aged 4, before he was born) so he knows I’m not anti vaccine. I do not believe vaccines cause autism, and I do believe parents have to make choices for them, and their families, as we did, but I do think that the mentality that “vaccines are poison, the medical/pharmacutical industry is out to get us and our children” and “these diseases are just mild and harmless” is irresponsible. The lady at my son’s playgroup who may think measles is harmless, and has chosen not to vaccinate her son, and in fact exposed him to another child with measles for him to catch it, yet also is exposing other children whose parents may not be so willing to have their children catch measles is not being responsible. I have the right to protect my kids, just as she has hers, but not vaccinating is not just as simple as that.
    Hope what I’ve said makes sense? I’m tired, my son has had the disgusting tummy bug this week, and my spelling is not great either!

    1. I have to say that sounds horrific Karen. *touch wood* neither of mine have ever had a febrile convulsion or had to go to hospital so I can only imagine how awful that was 🙁
      Your reply makes perfect sense and is a great insight into the issues involved from someone who is not only a Mum but also a health professional who has dealt with these issues, on a personal and professional level.
      Thanks for taking the time to write this all up x

  7. Obviously parents have the right to choose whether or not to get their children vaccinated. But I think that those who choose not to are wrong.

    Immunisation isn’t a personal choice. Every parent who decides not to immunise their child increases the risk of an epidemic. For immunisation to work effectively it has to be widespread amongst the population, otherwise there is a very strong chance that epidemics of easily preventable diseases will return. Whether you go for the combined vaccines – which have been fine for both our boys – or single jabs the important thing is to have them done. It’s good for the long-term health of your kids and of eveyone else’s children.

  8. I’m another pro vaccinator. Fair enough, waive the MMR if you must but get singles.
    I have two friends whose sons had leukaemia when young. Ever time these boys went out into public they took a risk that some child would be incubating measles, which could be fatal to an immuno suppressed child.
    The other thing that scares me is that despite having no vaccinations myself, I never contracted a ‘childhood’ disease. My brother and sister both did, but for some reason I missed out.
    I got chicken pox when I was 22, and was so ill I thought I might actually die. I was tested for immunity to measles before I got pregnant with DS and I had none.
    I dread getting measles at my age, and this has reminded me I should look into having the MMR done myself if possible as I’ve not had mumps either.

  9. I’m pro vaccination whether MMR or singles – it protects your child and those who can’t have the jabs for health reasons. I do think the health system needs to get its house in order though. My son hasn’t had a letter about his preschool booster yet and he is 4 & a bit. Apparently a batch of letters was messed up by our surgery, but they haven’t bothered to try to redo them or check everyone’s had them. I’ll be making sure my son has his before he starts school – bribery time?

  10. This was one parenting decision I left to the health system and we vax on schedule outlined by the French health system. I have lived in countries where vaccines are not readily available and I know people who survived “extinct” illnesses that oddly happen to be on the rise now.

  11. While yes, the number of measles cases has been higher in 2011 than the past 10+ years the whole picture isn’t being painted when these new stories are released about the “scare” of measles. Yes, so far in 2011 the US has seen 118 cases of measles. But of those 118 cases 100% have fully recovered – no deaths. So far in 2011 there have been 698 VAERS reports to the FDA as a direct result of the MMR vaccine – including 4 deaths and 280 ER visits. ( http://therefusers.com/refusers-newsroom/6-times-more-measles-vaccine-adverse-reaction-reports-than-measles-cases-in-2011/ ) So while yes, measles is on the rise the vaccine is showing to be up to 6 times more dangerous than contracting the actual disease.

    Now, I do believe that vaccines are crucial in parts of the world where they do not have proper living conditions, hygiene or medical attention. In those situations vaccines absolutely save lives. But where I live these diseases are not a threat and we chose not to vaccinate.

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