Immunisation - HELP!!!

[Guest guest]

Hi,

My name is , and I've just joined the group in the hope of

getting some views from parents on immunisation. Lesley and I are

proud first time parents of a beautiful (of course) baby girl, ,

who is now 9 weeks old, and now overdue for her first scheduled set

of vaccinations (DPT/Polio/Hib). We have been trying to make an

informed decision about which, if any, of the recommended

vaccinations are either necessary, useful, or safe. I have not been

able to find any source of information which is not either strongly

pro, or strongly anti, which makes it difficult to get a true idea of

the relative risks. Our GP's are fairly unhelpful, being very

dismissive of any views contrary to their own. One suggested that the

risk of contracting polio in this country was negligible, but is was

best to have it now, as it might be difficult to persaude a reluctant

child (or teenager) to have the vaccination later if he/she was

travelling to somewhere with a higher risk of polio. This does not

sound to me like a good medical reason for mucking about with a young

babies immune system.

Does anyone know a good source of impartial advice? What would be

really useful would be some clear statistics, showing the percentage

of babies vaccinated, and the rates of contraction of the various

diseases, both for vaccinated and non-vaccinated babies. This seems

to me to be the obvious information every parent would need before

making a decision, yet I haven't been able to get this information

from any source, either pro- or anti- vaccination.

Sorry if this was a bit long, look forward to you replies,

[Guest guest]

An excellent impartial book that I would recommend is the Vaccination Bible, it

lists the pros and cons, gives stats and information regarding effectiveness of

vaccines and the likely hood of getting the disease complications etc.

Excellent excellent book.

HTH

Joanne King

SAHM to Ethan - HB 29.06.00

Minute Secretary Colchester & District

[Guest guest]

>Does anyone know a good source of impartial advice? What

>would be

>really useful would be some clear statistics, showing the

>percentage

>of babies vaccinated, and the rates of contraction of the

>various

>diseases, both for vaccinated and non-vaccinated babies.

This is the sort of information I would like, as well, but

haven’t seen it. Most web sites, books, etc tend to take

one side or the other, but they don’t seem to just give the

numbers. So when you find the statistics, please share them

This group has had running battles about vaccinations in

the past, so I’m not sure we’re ready for another round...

Phyllis

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

wrote:

> One suggested that the

> risk of contracting polio in this country was negligible,

I think it came up on here before that the only recent (10 years)

cases of polio in the UK (there were only a handful IIRC) have been

caught by handling the dirty nappies of a recently vaccinated baby as

a live vaccine is used. If you do decide to give this your own polio

immunisations and those of anyone else handling your child's dirty

nappies should be up-to-date. Someone please correct me if I am

wrong.

At 9 weeks your baby is unlikely to find her hands in another baby's

nappy but she might at four months. Or at 12 months etc if you are at

a coffee morning/parent and child group and she comes across a 2, 3 or

4mo being changed or with a leaky nappy.

> Does anyone know a good source of impartial advice?

Sorry I don't, not for the UK anyway. I seem to remember coming

across something for our state health service a few months ago when I

was investigating the Hep B vaccine which is now recommended here (I'm

in Australia). For Hep B it gave the likely way of catching the

disease (needle sharing, exchange of semen, vaginal fluids but not

saliva) but I couldn't see the reason for giving it to babies although

I understand from other word-of-mouth sources it has been introduced

because of the growing SE Asian population who have a higher incidence

of being carriers and I think the immunisation is now given to all

babies at birth.

The state health department had good statistics on incidences of

various diseases. Different population but might be worth a try. Try

a search at www.google.com on victoria health department. I'd do it

for you but I can't get any webpages up ATM - email is getting through

ok though.

The vaccination schedules are different here too. I think at 2,4, and

6 months but you'd have to check that. My daughter is now 4yo so it

tends to go in but not hang around as well as it would if it applied

to us :-)

Hope this hasn't gone too far off the mark for you.

--

Sue

Melbourne, Australia

[Guest guest]

> wrote:

> > One suggested that the

> > risk of contracting polio in this country was negligible,

Sue Replied

> At 9 weeks your baby is unlikely to find her hands in another baby's

> nappy but she might at four months. Or at 12 months etc if you are at

> a coffee morning/parent and child group and she comes across a 2, 3 or

> 4mo being changed or with a leaky nappy.

The other situation that I can think of is at baby/ toddler swimming classes

Caroline

Jersey

[Guest guest]

> I think it came up on here before that the only recent (10 years)

> cases of polio in the UK (there were only a handful IIRC) have been

> caught by handling the dirty nappies of a recently vaccinated baby as

> a live vaccine is used. If you do decide to give this your own polio

> immunisations and those of anyone else handling your child's dirty

> nappies should be up-to-date. Someone please correct me if I am

> wrong.

You are right, one was very local to me (but not my patient thankfully!!!!)

Sue

[Guest guest]

> Does anyone know a good source of impartial advice? What would be

> really useful would be some clear statistics, showing the percentage

> of babies vaccinated, and the rates of contraction of the various

> diseases, both for vaccinated and non-vaccinated babies. This seems

> to me to be the obvious information every parent would need before

> making a decision, yet I haven't been able to get this information

> from any source, either pro- or anti- vaccination.

, have you been given copies of the Department of Health Fact sheets?

These have been issued to all surgeries and are freely photocopiable. Though

now I think about it I am not sure there is one for DTPPol. There certainly

are for MMR and meningitis - I can check when I am back at work.

Not an unbiased source maybe but lots of history, facts and figures and

statistical evidence.

Coming clean here - I am a practice nurse who carries out these vaccinations

all the time - and I do not ususally contribute to immunisation debates -

nor for that matter to questions about health and illness - and nit lotions

and sun creams and all sorts of stuff like that. I am very very wary of

inadvertently giving " professional advice " or it being interpreted as such.

Also - if I did I wouldn't ever have time for anything else!!!

But I do like the fact sheets - and I can photocopy them for you - that is

something I have done many times before

Sue Saxey

NCT BFC

[Guest guest]

,

I have managed to find this Surveillance of Notifiable Infectious

Diseases in , Australia, 1998 on our state health dept website

http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/phd/9911002/index.htm. Unfortunately

although the survey for 1999 was listed the link was broken. It's a

pdf document and pretty comprehensive e.g. gives details of vacc rates

then details of cases notified.

There has been a measles outbreak here, in February, which has been

traced back to a young traveller who returned from overseas. 25 cases

were directly contributed to him and another 8 are awaiting

confirmation apparently (Immunisation News March 2001

http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/phd/0005500/index.htm )

I had a look around the UK gov depts I could think of e.g. the

replacement for the Health Education Authority but couldn't find

anything similar.

HTH,

--

Sue

Melbourne, Australia