Rotavirus Vaccine: Once Burned, Twice Shy or Why So Many People Are Skeptical of Vaccines.

[McCamy Taylor]

I have already posted the potential benefits of the HPV vaccine. Any vaccine that can prevent a disease which can cause death or a chronic carrier state is worth considering, in my opinion. This is why tetanus, polio, Hepatitis B (but not A), diphtheria, influenza (for those at medical risk) vaccination and other vaccines such as rabies for those with occupational risks.

There are other vaccines for which the need is not so clear cut. Does a child really need a chicken pox vaccine? The disease is usually mild in school aged children and gives lifelong immunity. The vaccine, on the other hand, may simply delay the age at which a child gets the disease. If the immunity given by the chicken pox vaccine wanes at age 20, then the awful specter of adult chicken pox appears--and that is a pretty nasty disease. The same thing goes for measles. Mild in childhood, nasty as an adult.

Then there are diseases which have been all but obliterated from the wild. In recent years, the most common cause of polio in the US was---polio vaccine. Children were given the dose and then went home and spread the virus to a family member. That problem was solved by changing the live virus to an injection with killed virus.

However, the worst problem with vaccinations is the worry that the shots, which make babies cry, could also be making babies sick. This actually happened a few years ago with the rotavirus vaccine from Wyeth, which was promoted by the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/00056669.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/rotavirus.htm

There was a problem. The vaccine caused intussuseption, a potentially fatal twisting of the bowels of infants. It had to be withdrawn from the market. Last year, the FDA finally approved a new rotavirus vaccine from Merck, a live attenuated virus vaccine. It had been tested on 11,000 children around the world, however it is still being followed closely to see if it too will cause intussuseption. So far, the number of case of intussuseption are the number that would be expected to have occurred randomly, but this does not stop people from worrying.

I also wonder if the reports of a nastier than usual outbreak of "stomach flu" over the holidays could have anything to do with all those babies shedding those live (though weakened) rotavirus particles in their diapers and passing them on to the people around them. Remember why they changed polio vaccine from an oral to an injection. A live virus can still infect other people. And some of the people who may get infected (unknowingly) may have weakened immune systems from diseases such as HIV or leukemia or medications used to treat asthma or arthritis.

Anyway, people who are skeptical of vaccines have some pretty good reasons to keep their eyes on the FDA and the CDC and all the other government bodies that are supposed to keep us safe. So, do not beat other people up for being skeptics. They are just doing their job.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. This argues against the anti-vaccine people.

The vaccine was pulled as soon as there was a hint that it was unsafe.

[Horse with no Name]

2. Well the statement about the polio vaccine is a little skewed

I think the statistics speak for themselves.
>>snip
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/polio.html
The discovery and use of polio vaccines has all but eliminated polio in the Americas. In 1960, there were 2,525 cases of paralytic polio in the United States. By 1965, there were 61. Between 1980 and 1990, cases averaged 8 per year, and most of those were induced by vaccination! There has not been a single case of polio caused by the wild virus since 1979, with a rare case reported each year from persons coming into the country carrying the virus. In 1994, polio was declared eradicated in all of the Americas.

I should think this is cause for celebration, not a witch hunt because the vaccine has actually caused the disease. Unfortunately when dealing with viruses you are going to have it break through once in awhile. And that is tragic, no doubt. But how can you begin to compare 2,525 cases to 8 cases. I think the success speaks for itself.

As far as the varicella vaccine, chicken pox can be deadly. here is a good link about the vaccine and as far as I researched, there have been no deaths attributed to the vaccine.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11829699&dopt=Abstract
CONTEXT: Before licensure of varicella vaccine in 1995, varicella was a universal childhood disease in the United States, causing 4 million cases, 11,000 hospitalizations, and 100 deaths every year. OBJECTIVE: To examine population-based disease surveillance data in 3 communities to document the impact of the varicella vaccination program. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS: Active surveillance for varicella conducted among the populations of Antelope Valley, Calif; Travis County, Tex; and West Philadelphia, Pa; from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2000. Reporting sites included child care centers, schools, universities, physicians, public health clinics, hospitals, emergency departments, and households. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Trends in number and rate of varicella cases and hospitalizations; varicella vaccine coverage. RESULTS: From 1995 through 1998, in each surveillance area, the number of verified varicella cases varied from year to year with marked springtime seasonality. In 1999, the number and rates of varicella cases and hospitalizations declined markedly. From 1995 through 2000, in Antelope Valley, Travis County, and West Philadelphia, varicella cases declined 71%, 84%, and 79%, respectively. Cases declined to the greatest extent among children aged 1 to 4 years, but cases declined in all age groups, including infants and adults. In the combined 3 surveillance areas, hospitalizations due to varicella declined from a range of 2.7 to 4.2 per 100,000 population in 1995 through 1998 to 0.6 and 1.5 per 100,000 population in 1999 and 2000, respectively (P =.15). By 2000, vaccine coverage among children aged 19 to 35 months was 82.1%, 73.6%, and 83.8% in Los Angeles County, Texas, and Philadelphia County, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Varicella disease has declined dramatically in surveillance areas with moderate vaccine coverage. Continued implementation of existing vaccine policies should lead to further reductions of varicella disease in these communities and throughout the United States.

Then you go on to say that measles is mild in childhood.
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/diseases/measles/history.htm
>>>snip
Prior to 1963, almost everyone got measles; it was an expected life event. Each year in the U.S. there were approximately 3 to 4 million cases and an average of 450 deaths, with epidemic cycles every 2 to 3 years. More than half the population had measles by the time they were 6 years old, and 90 % had the disease by the time they were 15. This indicates that many more cases were occurring than were being reported. However, after the vaccine became available, the number of measles cases dropped by 98 % and the epidemic cycles drastically diminished.

1989-1990 Measles Epidemic
A dramatic increase in measles cases occurred between 1989 and 1991. During those three years, 55,622 cases were reported Most of the cases occurred in children under 5 years of age, with the number of cases among unvaccinated Hispanic and African American populations being four to seven times higher than among non-Hispanic whites. This also marked the first time the number of measles cases for children under 5 years of age exceeded those for the 5 to 19 years old group.

During this period, 123 people died from measles-related illnesses — almost half were under 5 years old. Ninety percent of those who lost their lives had not been vaccinated. The 64 deaths in 1990 was the largest number that had been seen in almost 20 years.

And about the nasty stomach flu. Rotavirus has a very "distinct" odor. We cultured many of those stools in the children that were admitted to the hospital over the holidays from the flu and none were rota positive. We have just started seeing positive Rotavirus in the past couple of weeks with the usual hospital admissions from it for rehydration. It is a seasonal illness.
And of course they watch any vaccine for adverse effects, so far Rotateq has not had any problems. 70,000 is a pretty good number.
>>>snip
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/rotavirus.html
In 1999, a rotavirus vaccine was taken off the market because it was linked to an increased risk for intussusception, a type of bowel obstruction, in young infants. In more than 70,000 children studied, RotaTeq has not been found to have this increased risk.
That being said...did you know that Rotavirus KILLS half a million kids WORLDWIDE a year, so a vaccine for this is necessary, don't you think? Or do you think vaccines are only for kids in the US?

SO with that being said...what do you think about the vaccine for RSV? I really must ask have you ever seen a child die from RSV? I have. It's not pretty. I actually had parents BEG to put their kids on a ventilator. Can you imagine that? It's heartbreaking. It's a new vaccine and I am sure that they will change it for whatever reason. However, RSV kills. It's a good thing.

I don't mind people being mindful of vaccine information. What I mind is putting the wrong information out there. Childhood diseases kill more kids than the vaccines that were developed ever could.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. The only childhood disease I saw, as a mom, was chicken pox. That was bad enough, I can't

imagine watching one's children suffer through measles and mumps, (still occurred, although rarely, when I was a kid.)

How about worrying every time your child had a fever that it was polio?

Vaccines have proven their value. Yet, poor research around those vaccines, such as the 1976 Swine Flu vaccine debacle, still find their way into the medical system.
MKJ

[davsand]

4. My kid ended up in the hospital with Rotavirus

She was three. She dehydrated once. They re hydrated her via IV, sent her home, and she dehydrated a second time. The second trip to the ER resulted in her admittance to the hospital for a few days.

If there had BEEN a vaccine I could have given that child to prevent that misery and danger, I'd have done it in a heartbeat--shot form or not. I stood there and watched while they put the second IV in that little kid's arm, and she was so weak and sick she didn't even flinch. At that point in time I'd have sold my soul for something to help that child, and I'd have smacked anybody that told me not to vaccinate her had there had been a way to prevent her illness.

I understand that some folks are worried about the links between infant vaccinations and Autism, however, I'm a whole lot more worried about my kid being sick (and maybe dying) with a disease I could have prevented by getting her vaccinated. Similarly, I understand that sometimes there are reactions to a vaccine that can't be predicted or anticipated.

While I do not trust the FDA wholeheartedly, I do think that if there was any doubt the medical associations or the Docs themselves would be speaking out against some of this stuff. Docs are not in the business of killing off little kids.

Just my two cents.


Laura

[Horse with no Name]

5. A lot of folks think it is just simple diarrhea

They don't understand how sick it can make these kids.
I'm sorry your little one had to go through it.:hug:

[davsand]

6. She's almost ten now, and she's fine!

Scared as we were at the time and sick as she was, she bounced back in a few days. (Those little ones get sick SO fast and they seem to get better equally fast!) I think the stark terror of having such a sick child took us (her parents) a lot longer to "get over" than it did for her.

My kid was in a pre-school at the time (hot-beds of kid illness, IMO, yet completely necessary for them!) and I'm convinced it probably originated there--but we'll never really know because it is such a common virus in our world. I remember my Mom telling me I was hospitalized with "flu" when I was a toddler--and I have to wonder if maybe I had it too even though I was (like many kids from the early 60's) at home with her rather than in any day care or pre-school setting.

I understand that childhood illness is part of their developing immune system, but Rotavirus really IS one that the poor little kid would have been better off not having. My personal advice to ANY parent would be to vaccinate for it if their Doc thinks it is safe. This stuff is nothing to mess around with.

Thanks for the hug!


Laura