OPINIONKeeping vaccination rates up: Doctors must keep up the pressureChildhood vaccines are a victim of their own success, and doctors find themselves spending more time convincing parents of the shots' necessity.Editorial. Sept. 8, 2003. Back-to-school time is also the time to bring many children up to date on vaccination. But these days, more and more parents are reluctant or refuse to get their kids immunized. So doctors find themselves spending precious office hours educating parents on the necessity and safety of vaccines. Nevertheless, it is essential that they keep up this work. Ironically, vaccines are victims of their own success. Before mass vaccinations, for example, each year measles infected 4 million children and killed 3,000, while polio paralyzed 10,000, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center. Last year, there were 37 confirmed cases of measles and none of polio in the United States, government figures show. In the eyes of some parents, these diseases seem like illnesses of the past that couldn't possibly hurt their children. To them, the shots appear unnecessary and more threatening than the diseases they prevent. They worry that multiple vaccines given at once will weaken their children's immune systems or that the measles-mumps-rubella shot will give their children autism. These parents are blind to or unaware of studies that disprove both concerns. The reality is that in today's world of global travel, many childhood illnesses are just a plane ride away. All of last year's measles cases are believed to have been imported into the country. According to news reports, this summer some Arkansas residents may have been exposed to measles on their trip to the Marshall Islands, and a Japanese student visiting Oregon State University was diagnosed with measles. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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