Clearing the Misconceptions about Vaccination BY DR ZURAIMI MOHAMED DAHLAN
The practice of immunisation dates back hundreds of years. Buddhist monks drank snake venom to confer immunity to snake bites and variolation (smearing of a skin tear with cowpox to confer immunity to smallpox) was practised in 17th century China. Edward Jenner was considered the founder of vaccinology in the West in 1796 when he inoculated a 13-year-old-boy with cowpox and demonstrated immunity to smallpox. Thereafter the cholera, anthrax, plague, tetanus, polio, and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines were discovered by various scientists in the West. Despite the evidence of health gains from immunisation programmes, there has always been resistance to vaccines in some groups. In the late 1970s and 1980s, increasing litigation and decreased profitability for vaccine manufacture led to a decline in the number of companies producing vaccines. The decline was
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arrested in part by the implementation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation programme in the US in 1986. The legacy of this era lives on to the present day in supply crises and continued media efforts by a growing anti-vaccination lobby.
of multiple vaccines weakening the immune system.
So does the MMR vaccine really damage the intestinal lining? Studies have shown that the vaccine does not cause intestinal inflammatory responses2. In fact, in Canada, researchers found an increase “Vaccination causes autism.” in autism rates with the decrease in A paper published in The Lancet in 1998 MMR vaccination rates3. In Sweden and that described eight children developing Denmark, from 1990 till 2000, there was a steady increase in incidence of autism symptoms of autism within one month of receiving the MMR vaccine was found despite the removal of thimerosal from vaccines in 19924 . A cohort study of to be unsupported by any evidence1. It was hypothesised that the MMR vaccine 100,572 children born in the UK from 1988 to 1997 showed no relationship causes autism via damage to intestinal between thimerosal exposure and lining permitting entrance of harmful autism5. Multiple vaccines given together proteins, which may damage nerve do not overwhelm the immune system cells in the brain. It was postulated as the infant immune system is capable that perhaps it was due to thimerosal, of responding to thousands of vaccines a mercury containing preservative, or perhaps the simultaneous administration simultaneously6. Furthermore, autism
WAKEFIELD AJ, MURCH SH, ANTHONY A, LINNELL J, CASSON DM, MALIK M, BERELOWITZ M, DHILLON AP, THOMSON MA, HARVEY P, VALENTINE A, DAVIES SE, AND WALKER-SMITH JA. ILEAL-LYMPHOID-NODULAR HYPERPLASIA, NON-SPECIFIC COLITIS, AND PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER IN CHILDREN. THE LANCET. 1998, FEBRUARY 28. 351(9103):637–41. THJODLEIFSSON B, DAVÍDSDÓTTIR K, AGNARSSON U, SIGTHÓRSSON G, KJELD M, AND BJARNASON I. EFFECT OF PENTAVAC AND MEASLES-MUMPS-RUBELLA (MMR) VACCINATION ON THE INTESTINE. GUT. 2002. 51(6):816–817. FOMBONNE E, ZAKARIAN R, BENNETT A, MENG L, AND MCLEAN-HEYWOOD D. PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS IN MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA: PREVALENCE AND LINKS WITH IMMUNIZATIONS. PEDIATRICS. 2006. 118:E139–50. HVIID A, STELLFELD M, WOHLFAHRT J, AND MELBYE M. ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THIMEROSAL-CONTAINING VACCINE AND AUTISM. JAMA. 2003. 290:1763–6. ANDREWS N, MILLER E, GRANT A, STOWE J, OSBORNE V, AND TAYLOR B. THIMEROSAL EXPOSURE IN INFANTS AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS: A RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM DOES NOT SUPPORT A CAUSAL ASSOCIATION. PEDIATRICS. 2004. 114:584–91. OFFIT PA, QUARLES J, GERBER MA, HACKETT CJ, MARCUSE EK, KOLLMAN TR, GELLIN BG, AND LANDRY S. ADDRESSING PARENTS' CONCERNS: DO MULTIPLE VACCINES OVERWHELM OR WEAKEN THE INFANT'S IMMUNE SYSTEM? PEDIATRICS. 2002 JANUARY. 109(1):124-9.
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