Not To Be Trusted With Knives

Public Health Achievement #4: Vaccination

April 30, 2010 by Beth

In BC, we are experiencing an outbreak of measles, with 83 confirmed cases in the province as of May 10.  It is believed that measles came into the province from people who were visiting during the Olympics ((although another case appears to have come from someone returning home to the Interior after visiting India)) and has spread to unvaccinated (or partially vaccinated ((to receive full protection from the measles, mumps & rubella (MMR) vaccine, you need two doses.  Receiving only one dose leaves you only partially protected))) individuals in the province.  Which brings us to the topic of vaccination.

One hundred years ago, infectious diseases were the leading cause of death worldwide. In Canada, they now cause less than 5% of all deaths—thanks to immunization programs. (Source)

The MMR Controversy

There are, however, some anti-vaccination campaigns out there, most notably one against MMR vaccine in particular. In 1998 a study was published in the Lancet by Andrew Wakefield and 12 co-authors linking MMR to autism.  After that, rates of MMR immunizations in the UK decreased dramatically and, as a result, cases of measles and mumps increased.  Since we don’t see these diseases much in developed countries – thanks to vaccination – we tend to forgot how dangerous they can be.  Measles can and does cause serious disability, and even death, in some children.  The Wakefield paper has since been retracted by 10 of his co-authors and was then fully retracted by the journal after a General Medical Council investigation found Wakefield “to have acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” and to have acted with “callous disregard” for the children involved in his study.  For example, he failed to get ethics approval for the invasive procedures he used in his study and, what I find most interesting, he had filed patents for vaccines that rival the MMR one.  So, by discrediting the MMR vaccine he stood to gain a substantial amount of money by selling an alternative vaccine in its place ((you can read the whole story over on Wikipedia)).  Despite all of this, however, there still remains a significant amount of fear that MMR can cause autism, and some parents will not vaccinate their children.

Some random interesting facts about vaccination:

• immunization saves 3 million lives and prevents 750,000 disabilities per year worldwide each year (according to the WHO ((that is to say, the World Health Organization.   Not The Who. I have no idea what their stats on immunizations say)))
• still, 9 million kids age of 5 and younger die every year of diseases that could be preventable by vaccines. 9 million!!
• Canada achieved one of the highest rates of H1N1 immunization (45% of the population was vaccinated, compared to 25% in Australia, 20% in the US and 7% in the UK).

Stuff you can do:

• If you were born after 1956 and haven’t received two doses of the MMR vaccine – go get vaccinated!
• Get informed about what vaccines are available and what ones need booster shots (e.g., you need a tetanus booster every 10 years)
• Keep your immunization record up-to-date.
• Traveling to another country? Visit your local travel clinic to find out what diseases are endemic to the area you’ll be visiting and if there are any vaccines you can get for those diseases.

For the record, I totally wrote something up for this back in April, but then WordPress eated it and I was too disheartened to write it all over again that day and then I forgot about it and now I’m posting it two weeks after April ended. (Though I’m backdating it so it will appear in my archives for April.  Because I’m awesome like that). Given that I have a problem with blogging about things things on time (see: BC Premiers series, abandonment thereof), I probably should stop creating “series” on my blog. I won’t, but I probably should.

Comments |0|

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.