Written by Dr. Jason Hoagland
First and foremost, in my immunization conversations with parents, I start with the foundation that these parents in front of me with their beautiful child are intelligent and want the best for him or her—even more than I do. When they decline serious disease-preventing inoculations (“an eye within” to watch for disease), there must be something very important to them that prevents them from protecting the people they value most in life from life-threatening complications—there is always a reason.
As we talk, I find often times they don’t understand the diseases they are choosing to leave off on protection—they don’t realize the implications of not providing surveillance and protection against specific diseases. They understand the anti-vaccine concerns in theory, but don’t understand the diseases—especially diseases that haven’t been prominent in their lifetime. We have immunized our memory to realizing how devastating these diseases are.
If the very rare parent chooses to not vaccinate, I put into the plan that I give to them that they understand they are leaving their child vulnerable to preventable diseases that could lead to: paralysis, meningitis, hospitalization, intubation, sterility, and death. I want it very clear, and share it with charity, that these are very real risks only an airplane flight away from them.
Measles is one of these diseases that escapes our conscience with almost none of us from the GenX and on having experienced Measles in our lifetime. Almost none of us experienced the pathognomonic rash of this most contagious of diseases during our childhood or amongst our friends. We didn’t see the pneumonias, blindness, heart complications; the brain damage 2 weeks after the fateful exanthem appeared—leading to death in 10-20% of these cases, with survivors dealing with behavior disorders, mental retardation, or epilepsy; or progressive insidious destruction of the central nervous system—always leading to death—years after someone thought they escaped the ravages of Measles.
For more information on the measles vaccine, visit the Center for Disease Control’s website.
