The Sense of Vaccines part II

In this post, I would like to focus on the potential adverse effects of vaccination. I've researching the issue and there seem to be several concerns among parents. First, there's the concern of illness caused by the vaccine. As I discussed in my previous post, there are several kinds of vaccines. Only the life, attenuated, vaccines can actually cause the disease they're supposed to protect against. Of those, only the measles and polio vaccines have been known to cause serious illness.

In 2005, a new combination vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) was approved (MMRV) and this vaccine has been in general use ever since. Do you know how many cases of measles were caused by his vaccine? It's zero. None whatsoever. Some 5% of vaccinated children develop a fever, some 1% a rash. In a few cases, some of the younger children, the fever causes further problems, such as febrile seizures, but nothing major. The vaccine has been linked to more serious conditions (coma, brain damage) but these are so extremely rare that it is impossible to say whether they're an effect of the vaccine or have another cause. The MMRV vaccine should therefore be considered safe. New cases of measles in the developed world are exceptional and only occur in the non-vaccinated population. However, because measles has found a safe haven in those populations in the bible belt and among the tree-hugging hippies that do not get vaccinated, we have to keep vaccinating our children.

From Wikipedia

The polio vaccine is a different case. There are two vaccines for polio: an oral vaccine with life virus and an injection with killed virus. The injection is absolutely safe, the oral vaccine caries a (very minor) risk but offers better protection and is cheaper to produce and distribute. However, the number of cases the polio vaccine prevented far outweigh the number of cases it caused. In 1988, some 350,000 children world-wide got polio. In 2007, that number had dropped to 1,652 cases as a direct result of the world-wide vaccination campaign. Polio has been eradicated from almost all countries, with the exception of Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan (WHO). Not the healthiest countries in general.

Another concern about vaccination was raised in 1998, when a study published in the high-ranking medical journal Lancet suggested a link between measles vaccination and autism. What the study actually reported were 12 cases of children with inflamed bowels who also had neurological diseases, including autism-like symptoms. The parents of the children thought their vaccination against measles caused the bowel infections and the bowel infections led to the neurological disorder. However, further study indicated no link whatsoever between the inflamed bowels and the measles vaccine and, as it turned, the parents were actually plotting a class-action law suit with some lawyers to sew the vaccine producers. They just needed a doctor to testify. Altogether, this proved to be a very bad idea, as the consequent vaccine-scare led to several outbreaks of measles, resulting in at least one fatality in the UK. When no evidence was found that measles vaccination caused the children's illness and the authors realized what severe consequences their report had, they retracted the publication in 2010. In other words, the only evidence that linked measles vaccination to autism was false and has been retracted. Further studies found no link. Find a free review here.

Finally, some concerns exist among parents about mercury in vaccines also causing autism. This is based on the fact that a mercury containing compound called thimerosal used to be added to vaccines as a preservative. Used to be. This compound is no longer added to vaccines. It has been absent from vaccines in Europe since 1992, and in the US and Canada since 1999. Also, thimerosal, which is metabolized to ethyl mercury in the body, is not a neurotoxin but a nephrotoxin; it causes damage to the kidneys, not the brain.

Has there been any change in the number of reported autism cases since thimerosal is no longer added to vaccines? Yes, in fact, the number has gone up. This is mostly due to the fact that more children are diagnosed with autism as a consequence of increased awareness and recognition of the disease, but it is safe to say that mercury in vaccines never caused autism. In addition, the occurrence of autism in the population that choose not to vaccinate as a consequence of the vaccine-scare in the late 1990's is no different from the general population. There is no link, in other words, between autism and vaccination.

In conclusion, modern vaccines are safe. Yes, they can cause some mild illness, but nothing really serious, while the consequences of not vaccinating are very severe indeed. So, if you care about your children and the children of others, get them vaccinated!

In the last part of this series, I'll finally focus on the mechanism of vaccination.