Are All Recommended Immunizations Necessary?

Last month, Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the AAP, published new recommendations from for childhood and adolescent immunization schedules in 2011, approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

With new recommendations including Prevnar 13, MC4V, Tdap, Td, Hib  and the HPV4 (either the Gardasil or Cervarix). Of course, always recommended are two doses of the flu vaccine.

• Prevnar 13 booster of the varicella shot for chicken pox.
• Td is the tetanus which should be administered at least every 7 years but the intervals and combination with other vaccines has been reevaluted.
• Tdap, a.k.a. pertussis, a.k.a. whooping cough vaccine revised recommendations are a direct response to national outbreaks of whooping cough. 
• A booster of MC4V, referring to the meningococcal vaccine, is recommended for adolescents to prevent meningitis.
• HPV4 refers to the human papilloma virus and is given not only to girls but also is recommended for boys ages 9 - 18 to stave off the likelihood of acquiring genital warts.   I shudder at thought
• A third dose HepB, hepatitis B is recommended for toddlers who did not receive the first dose at birth.
• PCV and the PPSV, not the plastic pipes under your kitchen sink, are recommended to prevent pneumococcular disease, otherwise known as pneumonia or sepsis caused by bacterial infections.
• The TIV or the LAIV, influenza vaccines, the difference between the two being whether or not your child is being injected with the live virus or not.

What does this vegetable soup mean to parents?  While many blindly follow the recommendations of their doctor, trusting in the infinite wisdom of pediatricians, there is still some debate over whether or not immunizations are at all necessary. Is this just more fear mongering from a medical model industry that wants to push even more drugs on our children or is this truly looking out for their best interests?

Major proponents of the anti-vaccination movement are Chiropractors, vegetarians and religious groups, calling it an unnecessary risk in which to subject infants and children.  The intervals, the doses, the composition of vaccines are all the subject of debate.

I asked my pediatrician, who happens to be from India, and he thought I was out of my mind for even suggesting the fact that this might be some medical conspiracy.  He said, “you don’t want to see someone die from measles, mumps or whooping cough. . . it is a horrible death.  People in my country wait in line for these vaccines because there aren’t enough.”

Ok, well, that did make me feel a little guilty that my own “afluenza” might be blinding my own judgment about immunization. Maybe the reason why we don’t see or hear about kids dying from polio, small pox, measles or diphtheria is because we have taken precautions to eliminate them.

But still, can my infant’s delicate system really handle the overload of more than six different immunizations at a time?  It doesn’t make me feel better when the nurse administering the shot tells me that my son will be a little cranky for the next couple of days/week, might develop a rash around the site and could experience fever or problems digesting. This, the doctors call an auto-immune response stimulated by an allergic reaction to the substances in the vaccine that trigger the body’s response to develop immunity.

Basically, the doctor said suck it up because this is nothing compared to what your son might experience if he gets sick with a deadly virus or disease.  Ok, good point but, what about autism, could my son suddenly develop autism?

The controversy over whether or not MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), shots cause autism has all but been dispelled with the outing of Dr. Andrew Wakefield's bogus study published in the British Medical Journal the Lancet.  Since April of 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made a statement the “evidence from several studies examining trends in vaccine use and changes in autism frequency does not support such an association” and, furthermore, “rejects the causal relationship between Thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.

Still, my son’s pediatricians stood by his recommended for the normal schedule of immunizations but said that if I had any reservations to getting multiple shots, that I could split them up between visits to protect my son’s delicate system from being thoroughly bombarded by chemicals. 

I did just that. Afterwards, my son was cranky and got a local rash. I gave him Tylenol and, by the time the Band-Aid fell off, he was fine. And so, we survived another round of immunizations without contracting a deadly disease and with no waiver in his developmental accomplishments.  Did we dodge a bullet or are we just placing a wager against something that would never have occurred in the first place?

The AAP is calling vaccination a “shared responsibility” linking it to a moral imperative for public safety, health and security. 

Immunizations are a medical procedure though, and whether or not you are persuaded that the risks are minimal in relationship to the benefit by any recommendations made by the AAP or CDC; it is each parent’s responsibility to make decisions in the best interest of their own child’s health.

If your child is immune-compromised or has other health related issues, you should talk to your pediatrician or family doctor about your concerns over immunizations.  Concerned parents should also do their own research as parents can be the best advocates for their children’s rights; empower yourself with knowledge and decipher the immunization alphabet soup for yourself. 

For more information on these recommendations or to view the full recommended immunization schedules for infants, children and adolescents, visit the AAP's immunization website.