Safe or Sorry

While the medical community is adamant that vaccinations are necessary and safe, some people believe there may be a connection between immunizations and autism.

By Michael Riley

August 28, 2006

Questions about the safety of childhood immunizations sometimes seem perennial, unlike the diseases those very vaccinations have wiped out or held at bay.

Parents worry about possible side effects. Some have even heard that some vaccines can serve as a trigger for autism.

Pediatrician Dr. Tehsin Qudsi understands those concerns, even as she firmly believes that immunizations are important for children.

"An unvaccinated child can be exposed to a disease or germ that the child's body and immune system are not strong enough to fight off. Diseases like polio and measles used to kill many children and although those diseases still exist today, children are now protected by vaccines," says the Kimball Medical Center physician.

While the U.S. is currently experiencing a near-record-low in cases of vaccine-preventable diseases, the viral strains and bacteria that cause them still exist.

Vaccines, she says, have virtually eliminated many infectious diseases and epidemics once common in this country.

Immunizations help protect both child and parent from disease; they protect the people who receive them and protect those who come in contact with unvaccinated people, health-care experts say. Immunizations cost significantly less than treatment and side effects are few and rare. Therefore, it is better to prevent a disease than to treat one with multiple doctors' visits and potential hospitalization.

"Many people believe that newborn babies are immune to many diseases because the vaccinations the mother received were passed to the baby," Qudsi says.

"While it's true that babies receive antibodies from their mothers, this immunity is temporary and typically lasts anywhere from a month to a year. Furthermore, maternal immunity does not protect against diseases such as whooping cough so it's important a child receive its own immunizations."

When people receive immunizations, they get vaccines containing fragments of viruses or small, weakened amounts of the diseases for which they're being vaccinated.

Antibodies created

The vaccines cause the immune system to create antibodies that can recognize and attack a virus or organism if exposed to it. Vaccines are typically administered through injection; some are given only once, while others require multiple doses given over time.

There are some risks. In rare cases, people have developed the disease for which they were vaccinated or suffered an allergic reaction to vaccine.

But a greater controversy over the safety of vaccinations has erupted in recent years over a possible connection between the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine and the onset of autism.

Art Ball is the director of government affairs for the Ewing-based Center for Outreach and Services for the Autism Community (COSAC).

"We're not a research organization," Ball says, "but we certainly listen to what the science is saying."

What it's saying, according to Ball, is that medical science is not absolutely certain what causes autism or what effect vaccines may or may not have as a trigger for a genetic predisposition to autism.

Preservative no longer used

It is true, Ball says, that many vaccines used a mercury-based substance as a preservative, and it's just common sense that it is no longer widely used.

Also, Ball adds, the MMR vaccine is given twice to children.

"The first shot protects 95 percent of the children. The second shot is essentially for the 5 percent not immunized the first time. But there is a simple blood test to determine if any given child needs the second shot," Ball says. "Parents can opt for the blood test to find out if the second shot is needed."

Despite these concerns, the Centers for Disease Control has said that "current scientific evidence does not support the hypothesis that measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, or any combination of vaccines, causes the development of autism, including regressive forms of autism. The question about a possible link between MMR vaccine and autism has been extensively reviewed by independent groups of experts in the U.S., including the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine. These reviews have concluded that the available epidemiologic evidence does not support a causal link between MMR vaccine and autism."

"Parents should talk to their child's pediatrician if they have any concerns about immunizations," says Qudsi.

Source: Asbury Park Press