As a parent, you do everything possible to keep your children happy, healthy and safe, however the grey areas of children’s vaccinations has caused much debate.
It is easy to risk assess physical dangers such as young children playing near a road, or running by a pool. In most cases as parents we intervene to prevent our children from suffering pain.
When we consider vaccinations, we know our children will suffer short term pain, we know there is a chance our child will become poorly for a short time after but then there is the conspiracy theories of life changing side effects leaving us petrified of risking our children’s health.
With little facts, we are left with nothing but a flip of a coin.
How do we judge our children’s future wellbeing?
We strongly support the research, proof and need for all young adults and children to be vaccinated against potential illnesses in the future.
Immunisation is the most powerful tool we have for long, healthy lives and here are some short, sharp facts behind the statement.
- Over 100 years ago our life expectancy was between 48 and 54, today we are expected to live to around 82 years of age! All thanks to medical science.
- Over 100 years ago most people died from infection, today with our vaccination programme in place, we are most likely to die from cancers, heart conditions or external causes such as drug misuse of self harm.
- Over 100 years ago there were 144,987 reported deaths of children under the age of 4. In 2015 there was a reported 3,181 deaths of children 4 and under in England and Wales.
The history of vaccines has proven to be beneficial, to both the individual and society.
- Polio vaccine was introduced into the UK in 1955. Today polio is extremely rare, in fact it is almost eliminated altogether.
- An immunisation campaign carried out by WHO from 1967 to 1977 resulted in the eradication of smallpox. This deadly disease caused an estimated, 300 million deaths in the 20th century.
- In 1974 WHO expanded the programme on immunisation, protecting us from diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles and poliomyelitis, again preventing millions of unnecessary deaths.
- In 2008 Professor Harald Zur Hausen was awarded the Nobel prize after discovering cervical cancer was caused by a virus. Today our young adults are given the HPV vaccine to prevent them from suffering certain types of deadly cancers in the future.
In recent history we have found that outbreaks of preventable disease occur in areas where parents disagree with child vaccination.
Around 24,000 parents and carers choose NOT to protect their children each year.
The decision not have your child vaccinated can also cause much concern for vulnerable people who are more prone to ill health or even death when they come into contact with a carrier.
Hospital visits and day care may become an issue for your child in the future.
When asked, most parents were highly concerned about adverse reactions to vaccinations.
There is no reported link between “adverse reactions” or problems caused after vaccination. Many people will suffer side effects, however this can be as little as a sore arm.
Each vaccine has slightly different side effects. None have caused “life” changing issues and any problems that occur around the time of injection can be dealt with (at worse) with a trip to A&E.
In extremely rare cases some vaccines can cause anaphylactic shock.
There is 1 in a million chance of anaphylactic shock caused by a vaccine. Your child is more likely to be struck by lightning.
Can it make my child autistic?
In 1998 former doctor Andrew Wakefield published research which claimed to link the MMR vaccine with autism.
Many influential people laid claim to this also, which sparked fear in the minds of parents around the world.
However in 2011, an Institute of Medicine reported on eight vaccines given to children and adults found that with rare exceptions. These vaccines are very safe.
2013 added further weight to the studies showing that vaccines do not cause ASD (Autism spectrum disorder).
Our future
Regardless of the split opinions of parents and carers today, there is little doubt of the impact medical science has had on our health.
Without willing contribution and involvement from eavery one of us, a halt in medical advances will have consequential effects on our life as we know it.
We are excited to hear of the changes made recently and the roll out of the HPV vaccine to boys in the UK.
We hope that it proves to be a much brighter future for the next generation of young adults and a big step in preventing other types of cancer.
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Back to school
As we are approaching a new academic year, residents of London are reminded to keep up to date with vaccination, especially freshers!
First year students are prone to meningococcal infection if they are not vaccinated.
Unless you have a valid exemption, all students are urged to get vaccinated before the start of term.
Public Health England say students should check they are up to date with the MenACWY vaccine before the start of term. Reports of Measles cases have reached an eight year high.
For more information on how to get your jabs, appointments and advice, contact us today.
If booking online please state which vaccinations are needed.
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Our children’s vaccinations include –
Tetanus
Polio
Rota virus
Pneumococcal Vaccine
Meningitis ACWY
Men B
Measles and Rubella
Measles
Hib-Men C
Hib
BCG
Hep B
Chickenpox
Yellow Fever
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We also have adult vaccinations which include –
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Typhoid
DTP
Rabies
Japanese Encephalitis
Meningitis
Chickenpox
Zostavax