THY E ES

The use of vaccinations stirs advocates, opponents, and parents who want the right to choose.

easles was supposed to be gone. Now it’s back—with a vengeance.

Through August 15, 1,203 individual cases of measles had been confirmed this year in 30 states. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the United States since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The outbreak is significant not only for the public health threat it poses but also for the debate over vaccinations it has reignited. Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that can cause fatal complications and is especially serious for young children. For most doctors, there is no debate. Vaccines prevent measles and other illnesses, they say, armed with scientific studies validating the safety of vaccinations.

Some doctors and parents, however, maintain that vaccines can cause developmental disorders and illnesses, and say they have the data to back that up. While they generally are dubbed “anti-vaxxers,” more accurately, they favor parental choice. Parents may alter vaccination schedules for their children, accept some shots and not others, or avoid vaccines all together.

One area of agreement in the debate is that more public education is needed, and many parents in Lake and Sumter counties are doing their homework on vaccine safety.

Advocates For Vaccines

Dr. Valerie Thomas doesn’t mince words about the importance of vaccinations.

“Vaccines save lives,” the Tavares pediatrician says. “Unfortunately, I have seen children die from vaccinepreventable diseases, including influenza, meningitis, pneumonia, whooping cough, and chickenpox. I have never seen a child die from a vaccine and I have never even talked with a physician who has seen a death from vaccine. Receiving the vaccine is fantastically safer than getting the disease.”

Dr. Thomas, who has been practicing for 31 years, also says she has never seen any permanent side effects from vaccines. Any vaccine potentially can cause side effects. The only side effects she generally sees are minor muscle soreness or a rash around the injection.

The CDC recommends vaccinations for children and adults at various times depending on their age and health conditions. When a vaccine is administered, it stimulates the immune system so it can recognize the disease and protect the body from future infection, thus immunizing the recipient.

A decision to not immunize puts people at risk of illness, states the CDC, which reports that the majority of people who got measles this year were unvaccinated.

Dr. Thomas says once viral or bacterial diseases are established in the body, it’s often too late to treat them effectively and prevent permanent damage or death.

“One of the things that vaccine refusers say is, ‘If my child gets the disease, then we will treat it.’ What they don’t realize is that all of the diseases against which we vaccinate are difficult or impossible to treat once the illness occurs,” the doctor says. “The best way to treat a disease is to prevent one from getting it, and that is what vaccines do.”

Many of today’s fears about vaccines are rooted in a 1998 study of 12 children led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist. The study purported to show a relationship between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and the development of autism. The MMR vaccine is recommended between 12 and 18 months of age, which coincidentally is when signs of autism may first become evident.

The study was discredited after multiple follow-up studies refuted the results, according to National Library of Medicine reports. Ten of the 12 authors of the study retracted their findings, saying no causal link was found between the vaccine and autism.

Still, fearful comments about vaccine side effects continue to spread on the internet and social media, says Dr. Eugene Tan, a Leesburg pediatrician.

“Most of them are really unfounded,” he says. “A lot of studies prove that no vaccine did cause autism or any major neurological side effects. There’s no proof, really.”

He encounters a few patients who are opposed to vaccinations and tries to explain his views.

“I’ll tell them that vaccine is still the safest way to go rather than risking their child to illnesses, but again, if they already have a preconceived idea, sometimes it’s hard to convince them,” Dr. Tan says.

Some parents are concerned about the number of shots children must receive, but research leading to new vaccines has created the increase, he says. For example, 20 to 30 years ago, doctors didn’t have the pneumococcal or the Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccines, and since the introduction of those vaccines, the incidence of those illnesses has decreased significantly, he says.

Mandatory vaccination is necessary to maintain “herd immunity,” says Dr. Paul Ehrmann, an osteopathic family physician in Royal Oak, Michigan. Some people can’t be vaccinated due to medical conditions, so keeping the rest of the population vaccinated protects those who are vulnerable.

“Some diseases, like measles, require as much as 95 percent of the population to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity,” he says.

Dr. Ehrmann, as well as Drs. Thomas and Tan, stresses better education for parents. In Michigan, a public information campaign launched in 2017 has significantly improved vaccination rates, according to the American Osteopathic Association.

“It’s up to us to try to protect the public health,” Dr. Ehrmann says. “The way that you do that is trying to educate patients on the advantages of the shots and give good, scientific, evidence-based information, and that’s all we can really do. The rest of it is up to the patient.”