Few situations are more frustrating for me and other physicians than parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. It is always distressing to see parents deliberately withhold a potentially life-saving intervention from their child. Also, unvaccinated children put other people in society at risk.
I’m seeing more and more people who resist getting vaccines for their children. There are many reasons, primarily the rapid spread of misinformation through the Internet but sometimes a general distrust of the medical profession. It is so hard to address this issue and explain misconceptions during consultations.
There is a continuum with attitudes toward vaccines ranging from ambivalence to adamant opposition. Some of the top reasons I hear from parents include beliefs that disease such as polio and measles have been eradicated or aren’t serious; vaccines cause autism or have side effects; children receive “too many” vaccinations at once; preservatives in vaccines are dangerous; pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and governments are engaged in some type of nefarious conspiracy; and that friends and family are more trustworthy than medical professionals.
Of course, education from a legitimate source is the best way to clarify the fact from fiction.
Skepticism or refusal to vaccinate children can grow out of the access people now have to medical information through sources online. In previous generations, this type of information was accessible only to trained physicians. So it’s important to give patients the tools to discriminate between genuine science and the pseudoscience surrounding vaccines and to support them as they go through the journey.
Research indicates that unvaccinated children are at significantly increased risk for life-threatening disease. Recent studies show the increase puts the unvaccinated child 5000 to 8000 times more likely to develop serious infections in the bloodstream, bacteremia, or brain infections, meningitis, than vaccinated children.
The diseases we vaccinate against aren’t just nuisances; they kill and maim children every day, and they are almost completely preventable by vaccination.
I have spent time in several developing countries and have seen children suffer and become disfigured by diseases that in Western countries we only read about in history books. I have seen babies die of diseases that with our Western lifestyles we rarely think of as vaccinations have nearly eliminated the illness. These same illnesses are now raising their ugly heads to make a global comeback because of the anti-vaccine movement. I urge you to take this into consideration when making decisions for your child’s vaccine.
This article was written by Dra. P. A. Anthony, Clinica Santa Cecilia Medical Director and General Practitioner. Call us today at +34 95 252 1024 to set up your appointment with Dra. Anthony.