Despite misinformation, vaccinations still important in preventing childhood diseases

Vaccinations are the best gift you can give your child to protect them against dangerous and preventable childhood diseases. This is especially important since the National Institute for Communicable Diseases issued alerts for healthcare workers to be on the lookout for outbreaks of measles, mumps and diphtheria.

While one of the reasons is that parents did not take their children to be vaccinated during Covid, some parents prefer to avoid vaccination due to scary rumours doing the rounds that vaccinations will make your child sick or cause autism.

The debate about vaccinations causing autism spectrum disorders started in 1998 after Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist, published a study of 12 children in well-known British medical journal The Lancet that the combination vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), causes intestinal problems in children that he believed caused autism.

The Lancet later officially retracted Wakefield’s article and many larger studies, published in major medical journals, since indicated no association between the MMR vaccine and autism.

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A warning that thimerosal, the preservative in most vaccines, contains mercury, a neurotoxin, was fuel on the fire to oppose vaccinations. The debate became even more heated when actress Jenny McCarthy told Oprah Winfrey in 2007 that she believed that vaccines caused her son’s autism.

No wonder parents were scared, especially since the debate has spilled over to social media where various people spread misinformation about vaccines and more celebrities jump on the bandwagon of saying no to vaccinations.

However, a group of US judges appointed to handle cases of families who believe immunisations were responsible for autism, ruled that thimerosal in vaccines does not increase the risk of the disorder, but parents are still wary of vaccinations despite there being no conclusive evidence.

As a result, more children contract these diseases and some die.

Measles, mumps and diphtheria

Measles is highly infectious and spreads rapidly among people who are not immune, leading to significant morbidity and mortality, the institute says. Measles is a notifiable disease in South Africa.

The most common complications of measles are pneumonia due to the measles virus or a secondary bacterial or viral infection, diarrhoea, croup, otitis media, mouth ulcers and eye pathology leading to blindness. Encephalitis can also complicate measles resulting in permanent brain damage.

ALSO READ: NICD measles outbreak update: Key facts you need to know

Mumps is a viral infection that primarily affects the salivary glands. The virus is transmitted by direct contact, or via airborne droplets from the upper respiratory tract of infected people. While the virus usually causes mild disease in children, in adults it can lead to complications, such as meningitis and orchitis.

Diphtheria is caused by a bacterium that produces a toxin that can harm or destroy human body tissues and organs. One type affects the throat and another type ulcers on the skin. Patients can develop abnormal heartbeats leading to heart failure or inflammation of the heart muscle and valves, leading to chronic heart disease and heart failure. The most severe complication of diphtheria is respiratory obstruction causing death.

Vaccinations create herd immunity

It is therefore important to protect children from contracting a range of diseases by vaccination. Vaccinations ensure “herd immunity” where about 90% of a community is immune to a disease to eradicate it completely. Parents who choose not to let their children be vaccinated compromise the herd immunity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 1974 to target six vaccine-preventable diseases, namely polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, pertussis (whooping cough), measles and tetanus.

ALSO READ: Diphtheria alert: Health dept urge public calm and awareness

While vaccinations can, in rare cases, have side-effects, the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risk. Government clinics provide the vaccines on the expanded programme for immunisations free of charge.

Vaccinations on the expanded programme include vaccines that protect children against tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis A and B, mumps, chickenpox, Rotavirus, pneumococcal infections (meningitis and lung, blood and middle ear infection, tetanus, whooping cough, Haemophilus Influenzae type B (Hib), measles, German measles and flu.

Vaccines are usually made from dead bacteria or viruses, while some vaccines contain live viruses in a very weak form to stimulate the body to produce antibodies against the disease. They train the immune system to recognise and fight certain germs, bacteria and viruses and build up resistance to prevent disease.

Babies can have side-effects such as a slight fever, drowsiness and soreness and in extremely rare cases very high temperatures.

Vaccination intervals

At birth, babies are vaccinated against tuberculosis and polio which is repeated after six weeks when the first vaccination one against DTP (diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus), Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) and hepatitis B are added.

At 10 weeks babies receive another vaccination against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, Haemophilus influenzae type b and hepatitis B and at fourteen weeks the polio, DTP, Hib and hepatitis B vaccines are administered again.

The measles vaccine is given at nine months and at 18 months the polio, DTP and measles vaccines are given again. When children turn six, just before grade 1, they receive a vaccination against polio, diphtheria and tetanus.

All these vaccinations are given by injection, except the polio vaccination which is given by drops into the mouth.