Please read this if you are debating whether to vaccinate.

[minties]

I'm definitely keen to have some booster vaccines now that I'm getting old, I know I can get the one for whooping cough during pregnancy so I'll be looking into that one first. I never even thought about MY immunity status, just that of my children.

 

[wishingonastar]

I'll have a look and get back to you on that as it is an area that interests me too (asymptomatic carriers)

Loraloo - yep I get what you mean about them being notifiable but my point was that if an individual's body nips the disease in the bud without developing full blown symptoms then there would be no known need to notify. (Hope I've made sense as my brain fried today!) Like my mother in law says my hubby had two single spots on his tummy when he had chicken pox and she only discovered them as she was being extra vigilant as his sibling had the pox at the time else she might not have realised he'd also contracted it as was so mild

 

[mara16jade]

I vaccinate my child, and I'll vaccinate my next (if/when I have another).

The death rate of children and humans in general was so high in the 1800-1900s. Once modern medicine came into play and vaccines were developed, death rates lowered. Now we're having diseases that were once irradiated from population coming back....why? People are choosing not to vaccinate. The transfer rate of diseases from one infected individual can cause such widespread disaster. Lets not resort back to how we functioned 100-200 years ago.

For the protection of your children, the elderly, immunocompromised induviduals and those who medically cannot be vaccinated, vaccinate your children.

There is a reason school systems nationwide are changing their policies radically. At least here in Los Angeles county, most schools will be requiring full vaccinations by 2017. Thank god. My child will be going off to preschool in 2018 and will be protected by his prior and ongoing vaccinations as well as herd immunity.

Death will never be better than autism (or whatever other issues people believe vaccines cause). And for the record, vaccines don't cause autism.

 

[Larkspur]

Now we're having diseases that were once irradiated from population coming back....why? People are choosing not to vaccinate. The transfer rate of diseases from one infected individual can cause such widespread disaster. Lets not resort back to how we functioned 100-200 years ago.

You don't even have to go back 100 years to see the difference vaccines have made. As late as the 1950s, polio was killing and paralyzing half a million people a year (and that's when the global population was less than half what it is now).

How many cases of polio were reported worldwide last year? 416.

The polio vaccine is an effective answer to just about every argument against vaccination.

It is incredibly effective at eliminating polio in a population despite the known fact that the live vaccine has a small risk of viral shedding.

It was introduced in the Western World well after modern sanitation, so it can't be claimed that better hygiene was what really eliminated polio, and has proven just as effective in countries with atrocious sanitation standards.

It has been used and studied for over 60 years with no apparent long-term negative effects.

It is a marvel of modern medicine and given that I have seen the effects of polio firsthand in a friend's father (permanent limp and nerve damage that caused lifelong twitching and shaking... and he was one of the lucky ones), I for one am grateful to be both be protected and be able to protect my children from that hideous disease.