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medpundit |
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Friday, February 06, 2004In the end, we concluded that some of the vaccines were more worth the risks than others. At my son's 2-month checkup, the pediatrician expected him to receive a triple-combination shot called Pediarix (consisting of Hep B, inactivated polio and DTaP, which covers diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis), as well as HiB (for certain bacterial infections) and Prevnar (for meningitis and blood infections). I reiterated my refusal of Hep B, accepted DTaP and HiB and asked to put off polio and Prevnar. In response, I received a threat: Get all the vaccines or get out of our practice. "Informed consent''? Ha. This was uninformed coercion. We're leaving for another practice, a little bitter but wiser. That, unfortunately, is a common attitude among physicians. Those same physicians also often look askance at doctors who cooperate with patients who refuse immunizations, as if it's their fault their patients have decided against universal immunization. Malkin's decision not to have her child immunized against hepatitis B is actually a reasonable one. It's difficult to argue that those shots are necessary for school attendance. Actually, it's impossible. There is no reason they should be mandatory, since 1) hepatitis B isn't a disease common in childhood and 2) it isn't easily communicable the way other disease like polio, diphtheria, and measles are. When hepatitis B vaccines became mandatory, that's when I noticed more of my patients becoming skeptical of childhood vaccines in general. The pneumonia vaccine, Prevnar, is a little trickier. It protects against bacterial infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae which causes 3,000 cases of meningitis and 500,000 cases of pneumonia a year. Vaccinating children not only reduces these illnesses in them, but in the adults around them, too. The bacteria also causes over 7 million cases of ear infections a year, but the shot isn't very good at preventing those. So, in the long run, it's probably a worthwhile vaccine to get, but the diseases it protects against aren't as deadly or widespread as those the older, traditional childhood vaccines protect against (like polio or diphtheria.) The polio vaccine is one that I would definitely recommend. Polio is still endemic in some parts of the world, although its incidence is declining. With today's easy international travel, I'd be hesistant to leave a child unprotected. Still, whether or not to have a child vaccinated is a decision that every parent has the right to make. (We are even required by law to give them handouts that explain the pros and cons of each vaccine so that no one gets a vaccine without informed consent.) Dismissing someone who actually reads them and makes an informed decision isn't going to make them change their mind. But it might turn them away from traditional medicine forever. posted by Sydney on 2/06/2004 07:37:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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