Ti Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate

A lot of parents stress over the choice of deciding wither or not to vaccinate their children. The reason why deciding to vaccinate children is so difficult is due to the wide range of myths and side effects that are connected with vaccinations. Examples of myths that are spread to parents all over the United States is that the diseases don't even exist anymore, the risk of a child becoming autistic due to thymerisol in vaccinations, and rumors of vaccinations effecting the child's immune system. Some side effects that scare parents out of getting their children vaccinated are brain damage, seizures, or allergic reactions. But then parents are pulled back to the thought of the possibility of their child or children catching a very serious life threatening disease. Thinking about any of these terrible things occurring in a child's life makes it very easy for a parent to steer clear of the whole situation, and in ending result, not get their child vaccinated.

When children aren't vaccinated, they are left defenseless against diseases like hepatitis B, measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio, pertussis (whooping cough), rubella, and more. All these diseases have the ability to easily kill a child within days, and if it weren't for the vaccines protection on many children in the United states, the spread of these diseases would travel rapidly.

There are a lot of people that do not recommend or get vaccinations for children because they think it is unneseccary to vaccinate for a disease that is no longer around. Even more so when they look at the health risks associated with the vaccines. But let's look at the big picture. If everyone stopped getting the vaccinations what would happen? Todd Neale from Medpage today inquires in San Diego 2008, " Although the rate of two-dose immunization against measles was 95% in the area, a single case of measles from a 7-year-old child returning from overseas sparked an outbreak that exposed 839 people and sickened 11 other children". Now if those 839 people weren't protected with strong immune systems or vaccinations, there would have been a drastic dilemma. This is a perfect example of how fast a disease can get out of control. Another example from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, "The Japanese Ministry of Health decided to stop using the pertussis vaccine in 1975. In the three years before the vaccine was discontinued, there were 400 cases of pertussis and 10 deaths from pertussis in Japan. In the three years after the pertussis vaccine was discontinued, there were 13,000 cases of pertussis and 113 deaths!" When parents think that its o.k. not to vaccinate because the diseases aren't around anymore, they are really relying on other children who are vaccinated to keep their own children healthy, which is a gamble. In other words, According to the