Welcome on the blo(g)ck Vaxplanations

There is a new blog on the block - Vaxplanation sets out to explain the myths around vaccination (we can never have enough of those). Their first post takes down a sad denialist piece which trivialised the dangers of measles and propagated loads of old anti-vaccine lies, well, myths. The piece is not only eloquent, but also spiked with the right amount of information, snark and some lovely memes, driving home the essentials - vaccination is safe, not vaccinating is the wrong choice.

Welcome Vaxplanations - looking forward to your next!

KISS 3/18/14 - measles then

Anti-vaccine propagandist like to point out "historic" accounts of measles and co. where the diseases totally were no big deal. Well, I see your Brady Bunch and I raise you poor Captain Hamilton:

He "was not vouchsafed a hero's death upon the field of glory, he was none the less a hero, dying of pneumonia, following an attack of measles."

I am sure his mom did everything wrong and gave him tylenol or something...

Chicken pox? Chicken pox!

There are still parents who, although generally vaccinating, question the need for a chicken pox vaccine. They do think of chicken pox as a harmful rite of passage, a handful of pox, crusted over in a few days - about as "dramatic" as in this child:



the benefit is assumed to be life long immunity (which it is, for about 90% of patients). Problem is - these are chicken pox, too:

 

Hundreds of lesions, the entire back covered, incredibly painful, the infection so severe that the child had to be committed to the hospital, like 2000 of her peers in pre-vaccine Germany per year, on average for 5 days, 77% without pre-existing conditions. Chicken pox cases neurological complications (25.4% of hospitalisations), skin infections (23.2%) and gastrointestinal complications (15%), indeed, pox can be internal as well. About 20 per year died.

There is nothing to predict whether your child will be in the top group - "chicken pox? What's the fuss about?", or in the bottom group "chicken pox?! Looks like small pox to me!".  

That is why vaccination is worth it!

Anniversary

the third anniversary of Angelina's diagnosis. Just before, she had been a completely healthy six year old:


then SSPE, the late and invariably fatal measles complication became overt. This video by the German Association of Pediatricians explains the stages - watch it, you'll get the gist - at first, she is "only" clumsy and falls, then the seizures start, and very few months later Angelina was incapable to doing anything. This is the condition she has been in for the past 2.5 years:




Angelina's mother wonders at the end of this video, why parents do not vaccinate their children, while they are all buckling them up in the car. She does support mandatory vaccination (no shots, no school does not exist in Germany).

I agree with the doctor in this video:

Parents - go get your children vaccinated, especially against measles, mumps and rubella. If you are not immune, talk to your doctor and get yourself up to date.
If you are afraid to vaccinate, talk to your doctor and work with him/her on "unscaring" yourself. Then vaccinate your child/yourself. Thank you.

You are an anti-vaccine activist? Have a careful look at that film clip. It shows the results of not vaccinating. Measles could have long been eradicated, where it not for pro-disease activists like you. Please realise that the risk of infecting a baby with measles is something you cannot control.

Measles Madness

no really - absolutely madness. Do parents in the US not realise how good they have it with measles not circulating and their babies protected? We are 10 weeks into the year, not quite 20% and the CDC reports 71 cases of measles. SEVENTYONE! In 10 weeks! That is as many as in the entire year 2009 and more than in 2010 and 2012.

7 cases in Orange County. 19 in New York - 5 of those hospitalised - that is a quarter. Honestly? What is this? The Middle Ages? The potential for further spread and infection of vulnerable, young, old, sick, immuno-suppressed is horrendous - look at this from the Orange County outbreak:

SEVEN possible exposures in 5 different hospitals/doctors' practises, TWO different schools exposed, with 1 (only - luckily) and 13 kids with philosophical exemptions respectively. What will it take for people to sober up? For uneducated C-rated starlets to shut up and get their child appropriate medical care? Will a child have to die?

It is time for vaccinating parents to speak up. Stop being tolerant of your friends' and neighbours' vaccine denial. Tell them that what they are doing is unacceptable and dangerous. Start asking questions at your daycare centers, schools, doctors' offices - how many of their pupils/patients are unvaccinated out of personal choice. Tell them it is not acceptable and dangerous to be complacent. Speak up.

75 studies that show no link between vaccines and autism UPDATED to 107

Edited to fix links and to add more studies for a new total of 107 on 11 March 2014

Guest blog, compiled by Allison Hagood, Luci Baldwin, Kathy McGrath and Nathan Boonstra and originally published on the "Your Baby's Best Shot" Facebook page. I am grateful for the permission to repost!

If anyone still tries to pull the "vaccines cause autism" card on you, provide them with a link to this note!

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KISS 3/3/2014 The Dreamboat

Measles love to travel

These days, you can catch them on planes and buses, but also in a very posh location - the Concordia class cruise liner Costa Pacifica has had 7 confirmed cases of measles amongst its crew members, 40 are in quarantine in Italy, where the boat made an unscheduled stop.
Check your vaccination records now, unless you want to bring home a souvenir...