Health professionals are concerned that parents forgoing vaccinations for severe illnesses for their children due to worries about autism. Doctors believe these patients are doing more harm than good.
“The reason why there are so many vaccinations recommended for children from age 18 months to two years is that this is the period where children are most vulnerable to serious infections because their immune system is not as strong as that of an adult,” says Dr. Michael Savatteri, a family physician in Stoney Creek. For example, certain types of bacterial meningitis are most lethal when a child less than 3 months old is exposed to them.
“Now we have vaccines against those diseases and since the introduction of these vaccines, we rarely ever see these types of diseases emerge. Actually, coincidently, we only ever see them in the children whose parents have decided not to immunize their children,” said Dr. Savatteri.
A recent study has shown that 63 per cent of Canadian parents used Internet searches to find information on vaccine safety. Only 54 per cent went to a doctor with their questions. Dr. Savatteri said the most common question he is asked is “What does the immunization actually do?”
Dr. Savatteri explains that immunizations teach the immature immune system how to fight against diseases which the immune system has not seen before in a safe and controlled manner. This is usually done by rendering the bacteria or virus inert. Once this has successfully been done, doctors introduce it to the child’s immune system with a needle or orally with a liquid.
“We often add a little more booster chemical and by doing so, the immune system develops a memory and learns how to fight off that particular particle or virus.” Dr. Savatteri said that if the child’s immune system ever encounters the virus in the future, the immune system knows how to fight it effectively and “does not allow that bacteria to replicate in the body —it sees it, attacks it and it’s over with.”
Our immune systems are setup to recognize foreign bacteria and deal with them appropriately – this is their job. Groups claiming to be health organizations have been have been attempting to put an end to vaccinations for young children. The Vaccination Risk Awareness Network is a Canadian non-profit educational society that was founded by parents who say their children have suffered vaccination reactions or injuries. When asked to comment, the society declined.
Dr. Savatteri is worried that organizations such as these can cause more harm than good.
“Unfortunately, within the popular media, some people have run with the idea that certain vaccines are dangerous and have been associated with poor health outcomes for children.”
Essentially, one must go back in history to events that took place in the 1990s to fully understand the origins of the claims.
“At this time, a doctor in the United Kingdom named Dr. Wakefield had published a very large study in a very important medical journal called The Lancet. This suggested that there was a link between autism in the vaccination MMR, which is measles, mumps and rubella,” Dr. Savatteri said.
“Subsequently, it was determined that Dr. Wakefield’s results were falsified and soon thereafter, The Lancet pulled that study calling it utterly false. Dr. Wakefield ended up losing his medical license to practice medicine.”
Unfortunately, a lot of the damage was done by this time, as people began to fear that vaccines were harmful. Since then, hundreds of studies have demonstrated the safety of the MMR vaccine and the fact that it does not cause autism.
“There was a concern that a preservative called thimerosal in the vaccine may be what was contributing to autism as a result of too much mercury in the vaccine. It is important to understand that scientifically, there is a difference between diethyl and dimethyl mercury— one is toxic to a human and the other is relatively safe,” said Dr. Savatteri.
Despite the lack of science behind such claims, thimerosal was removed to help people feel more comfortable in receiving these vaccines. Nowadays, thimerosal can only be found in some flu vaccines and even then, it is still quite safe.
“You will get more mercury from eating a can of tuna than you would from the entire series of vaccinations before thimerosal was removed.”
Dr. Savatteri says that this connection between autism and vaccinations has become more popular because “people, especially celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, keep running with that idea and unfortunately, people believe her.”
McCarthy has been called an anti-vaccine advocate. She has made claims that her son’s autism was triggered by a vaccination and has since written an op-ed piece saying, “For years, I’ve been wrongly branded as anti-vaccine, and I believe parents have the right to choose one poke per doctor visit…”
The Ontario Minister of Health said the damage has been done. “It is outrageously irresponsible. The science is very clear and everything [McCarthy] has referred to has been discredited many times.”
It is important to remember the risks of contracting one of the diseases that doctors are immunizing against. When balancing against the very minute risks that vaccines may pose, the majority of the time a vaccine simply causes a sore arm or leg for a day or two and possibly a low grade fever.
Dr. Savatteri says you would be more likely to get struck by lightning than to have an adverse reaction to a vaccine.
“Given the multiple benefits of vaccines, and their overwhelming safety, institutions such as schools, day care and volunteering, have begun to implement strict requirements that all students be vaccinated. It is becoming more difficult to get an exemption from vaccination,” said Dr. Savatteri.
To go to school without vaccinations requires formal documentations including a notarized exemption from a lawyer. Also, daycares will no longer accept children who are not immunized in order to protect the other children who are immunized.
We should never forget what is at stake by not receiving vaccinations. “We think that infections like meningitis or measles are behind us but this week in Hamilton, there was an outbreak of mumps – that’s a little too close to home for me,” said Dr. Savatteri. “And we all recall the tragic story of young Ezekiel who died from meningitis [after his parents decided to treat his symptoms with maple syrup and apple cider vinegar]. This outcome becomes much more likely without proper vaccination and the distrust of modern medicine.”
-Loredana Del Bello, Assistant News Editor
The post Ontario doctor slams claims that childhood vaccinations cause autism appeared first on The Brock Press.