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Top 3 Reasons Why Parents Fear Vaccination For Their Child

Vaccination has played played a big role in saving lives from infectious diseases for many years now. It has even wiped out some disease entities which have caused the loss of many lives in the past. The eradication of smallpox is a classic example of the success of vaccination is disease prevention. It has been stopped more than 30 years ago, by combining an effective vaccination program with intense surveillance and public health control measures.

Despite its contributions, vaccination is still continuously subject to scientific scrutiny. It has continually been restudied and retested as new health concerns emerge. Recently, childhood vaccination was investigated for its implications on the development of autism. This allegation has caused many parents to doubt and even fear vaccination for their child.

1. Parents think that vaccinations might cause mitochondrial disease and autism

This issue about vaccination causing mitochondrial disease and autism drew public concern when a girl suffered from a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism after receiving 5 standard childhood vaccines last July 2000. After 4 years, the Department of Health and Human Services released a statement confirming that vaccination may have possibly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, with stress on the keywords “possibily” and “underlying”. 

Mitochondrial disorders are actually passed on disorders that a child may inherit directly from the mother, not from vials of vaccines. All bodily functions are affected when there is a mitochondrial disorder because it is themain powerhouse of every cell, and without energy, cells cannot function to its optimal level. Therefore, somebody whose immune system is down (as a result of mitochondrial disease), will not be able to mount a good response to vaccination. In this case, the child will not benefit from childhood vaccinations, and might even trigger serious symptoms.

Vaccination may be the cause for aggravation of mitochondrial disease, but up to this date, there is no scientific proof that vaccines can indeed cause mitochondrial disease an autism.

2. The side effects of vaccines may be dangerous to a child

Vaccines do have side effects, but these are only minor which include redness or swelling at the injection wound, soreness, mild fever, temporary headache, dizziness, fatigue or loss of appetite. Influenza and yellow fever vaccines are made of eggs, so children who are allergic to eggs are not given these. Also, if the child manifests any severe or life-threatening allergic reaction to a vaccine, further doses should not be given anymore. In extremely rare occasions, a child may have seizures which warrants absolute contradiction to the vaccine.

Vaccines may have troubling side effects, but these are only rare, and in general, they are still much safer than the disease they prevent. Doctors screen their patients to identify those patients who are at special risk, so parents should not worry too much.

3. Vaccines can cause the disease they are supposed to prevent

Many parents think that their child should never get ill of flu just because he received a flu vaccine shot. It should be understood that flu virus has many serotypes and is constantly mutating. That’s the reason why flu vaccine is administered on a yearly basis. Hence, the flu vaccine does not provide 100% protection, but they decrease the chances of getting the flu infection. While it may be true that a person vaccinated with flu vaccine can still get the infection in his lifetime, the vaccine itself does not cause the flu.

Childhood vaccines can help in preventing serious and potentially fatal diseases from harming your child. These include diphtheria, polio, tetanus, measles, whooping cough, pneumococcal infection and other vaccine-preventable diseases. It is essential that parents be aware of current health issues, so make it a point to raise questions with your doctor or nurse. This way, you will not have to think twice when bringing your child to the doctor for a vaccine shot just because of controversies or speculations.

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