What If We Stopped Immunizations?

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

04 Aug 2006 12:11 PM

In the United States, vaccines have reduced or eliminated many infectious diseases that once harmed or killed many people. However, the viruses and bacteria that cause these diseases still exist and can be passed on to people who have not been immunized.

Diseases that are preventable have many effects on society as a whole: sick children miss school, which can force parents to take off from work. Visits to the doctor's office are usually necessary. Vaccine-preventable diseases may also result in hospitalization, permanent disability, or even death.

Do you really know the impact these vaccine-preventable diseases could have?

The polio virus causes a paralysis that can lead to permanent disability or even death. Before the polio vaccine was available, as many as 20,000 cases of polio were reported every year in the United States. Thousands of victims were left needing braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and even iron lungs to survive. Polio immunization programs have virtually eliminated the disease in the Western hemisphere. Less than three thousand cases of polio were reported world-wide in 1999.

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases in the world. Before immunization was available, more than ninety percent of people who were exposed to the virus got the disease. Up to twenty percent of those with the disease require hospitalization. Around the world, approximately one person out of every hundred with measles does not survive. According to the World Health Organization, if measles vaccinations were stopped, we could expect as many as 2.7 million measles deaths annually around the world.

Before vaccinations were available for pertussis, nearly all children developed whooping cough at some point. As many as 260,000 cases were reported each year in the United States before the immunization became available. Pertussis in infants can be a severe illness, resulting in brain damage, seizures, and other mental problems. Without immunizations, the disease could experience a massive resurgence.

Diphtheria is a serious disease caused by a bacteria that produces a poisonous substance that causes heart and nerve damage. At the height of the disease in the United States, more than 200,000 cases were reported and more than 15,000 were fatal. The very young and the elderly are especially vulnerable, with a death rate of up to twenty percent. Diphtheria is very rare in the United States but is still common in other parts of the world. Tetanus is a severe, often fatal disease that is still present in many parts of the world. The bacteria that causes tetanus (or lockjaw) leads to muscle stiffness and spasms. The throat can close, causing eating and breathing problems. Approximately twenty percent of reported cases of tetanus are fatal. Around the world, the disease kills 300,000 newborns and 30,000 birth mothers who were not properly vaccinated. Tetanus is infectious, but not contagious -- immunization is the only way to prevent the disease.

One more disease to think about: mumps. Before the vaccine was introduced, mumps was a major cause of deafness in children -- approximately one out of every 20,000 reported cases resulted in hearing loss. Women who develop mumps during the first trimester of pregnancy are more likely to have a miscarriage. The virus that causes mumps is easily spread among people who are not vaccinated; most cases are mild but some people experience serious side effects like brain swelling, paralysis, and seizures.

Learn more about Aimee Amodio

Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger

Melissa J (13710) 04 Aug 2006 10:25 PM

Great information!

CowboysFan24 (30) 19 Feb 2009 04:46 PM

I am a current student taking Child and Adolescent Development in college and we were recently talking about children and vaccinations and my teacher posed a question that was very interesting and hard to answer. Many vaccinations have been recently found to cause certain disorders in children such as autism etc. My teacher posed this question and I would like to know a motherly opinon " Would you get your kid vaccinated knowing that it could possibly cause other disorders to arise or would you not vaccinate them and hope that they dont catch things such as measels, mumps etc.? Also I was wondering what you mothers thought about "chicken-pox parties", where mothers bring their children to another persons house whos child has the chicken pox? Thanks in advance.

Aimee Amodio (11995) 19 Feb 2009 11:48 PM

Well, CowboysFan, I can't do your homework for you... but I can offer a few links you may find interesting and/or useful. You may also want to pose your questions in the families.com forums (not just on the blogs) to get some more opinions!

http://baby.families.com/blog/vaccines-not-the-cause-of-autism-rules-the-court http://health.families.com/blog/vaccine-fact-and-fiction http://health.families.com/blog/all-about-chicken-pox http://parenting.families.com/blog/your-childs-been-invited-to-a-pox-party

CowboysFan24 (30) 23 Mar 2009 05:58 PM

Our teacher wants us to do these blogs so that we can compare what we read in books to how people actually take care of their kids so I would liek your opinion if you have one...

Aimee Amodio (11995) 23 Mar 2009 08:32 PM

May I suggest again that you post your questions in the forums -- there are lots of very active members there and you'll get a wide variety of opinions!

As for my opinion... I'm not a parent, but I'm very pro-immunization. Recent evidence has shown that there is not a link between vaccines and immunization, and I'm all for eradicating diseases like mumps, measles, polio, etc.