11/17- Pediatric Health Maintenance and Vaccination Controversy Flashcards
Key notes to start:
The ACIP recommended immunization schedule is safe and effective.
- Vaccines are given to infants & children to offer the most protection when they need it most.
- The immune system is not overwhelmed.
- It is NOT “too many, too soon.”
Yup
T/F: Vaccine concerns have arisen mostly in the past generation
False- started way back in revolutionary times
What were some of the concerns about variolation?
- Idea that intentional disease exposure could make a person healthier was counterintuitive.
- Intentional exposure was a violation of God’s will; one should die a “natural death” and not change the course of natural events.
- Fears of contracting the disease or dying from the vaccine
What may have contributed to distrust of vaccines?
Cutter incident
- Polio vaccine issue in which small plant failed to fully inactivate the virus
- Many kids got mild polio, some were permanently paralyzed, and 10 died
The modern American anti-vaccine movement started with what vaccine?
- DPT (mom made DPT group- Dissatisfied Parents Together)
- This has become National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)
Who is Dr. Bob Sears?
Medical doctor
- Wrote the vaccine book with “alternative” and “selective” vaccination schedules
What caused the worry about linkage between vaccines autism?
Wakefield published case report of 12 children with IBD and regressive developmental delay with the hypothesis that MMR caused bowel dysfunction which resulted in neurodevo disorders
- Article was retracted
- Study labeled as an “elaborate fraud” (license revoked)
Why was MMR a victim of timing?
- Can’t be given until maternal antibodies wane (12-15 mo)
- Language begins at 4-5 mo with babbling sounds, but not usually noticed by parents until 9-12 mo (“mama/dada”)
- Lack of devo may not be noticeable until 12-15 mo; coincidence
So to recap: which vaccine was targeted as causing autism?
MMR
- MMR DOES NOT HAVE ANY LINK TO AUTISM; no causal relationship
What is another concern about vaccinations (component)?
Thimerosal (mercury derivative) thought to be harmful
What is thimerosal?
- Chemically?
- Risks
- Not risks
- Vaccine preservative
- Only known risk is hypersensitivity
- Almost 50% by weight ETHYL mercury
- Short half life
- Does not cross the blood brain barrier due to its molecular size
- WAY different from the methyl mercury pregnant women are warned about (found in fish, animals, and humans; known toxin)
Is mercury linked to atuism?
No
- Even with methyl mercury poisoning (fumigated grain), pregnant women delivered babies with epilepsy and mental retardation… not autism
- Denmark stopped using thimerosal… autism rates have risen since then
- Different symptoms of mercury poisoning and autism
- Exclusively breastfed babies will ingest more than 2 times the quantity that was ever in vaccines and 15 times that contained in the influenza vaccine
What is another concern (about quantity of vaccines)?
Vaccines worried to overwhelm the immune system; worried that too many are given too soon
Why is the concern about overwhelming our immune system impractical?
Our immune system encounters challenges every day
- Even an UR viral infection exposes child to 4-10 antigens; case of strep throat is 25-50
- Children today are exposed to fewer vaccine antigens today than in past (due in part to elimination of smallpox and acellular pertussis)
- 30 years ago: 7 vaccines with > 3,000 bacterial/viral proteins
- Today: 14 vaccines with 160 immuno componenets
Another concern about vaccines causing disease?
People worried vaccines cause other chronic diseases
