In global statistics, infectious diseases are still considered one of the causes of mortality. Each state is trying to protect itself through vaccinations from the spread of the most dangerous infections. There is no more effective measure in the world to combat pandemics and epidemics of infections than vaccination.
Thanks to vaccinations, plague and cholera, which destroyed states and continents, disappeared forever.
Vaccination wiped out smallpox from the face of the earth, the mortality rate from which reached 40%, and left disfiguring scars on the face and body of the surviving people forever. The final elimination of smallpox from the world was declared at the WHO Assembly in 1980. Since that time, smallpox vaccination itself has been discontinued. Nowadays, thanks to vaccinations, the spread of polio has been stopped in most countries.
Without vaccinations, epidemics of dangerous infections would now be raging in the world, spreading throughout the world much faster than two centuries ago.
What are the most common myths about vaccinations?
The whole truth about vaccinations is an exciting topic for parents and a pressing topic for the media. Let's look at how doctors refute some myths about vaccinations.
Myth #1 – About vaccines containing mercury
“Vaccines contain mercury as a preservative and provoke the development of autism in children.”
The truth is that some vaccines actually contain ethyl mercury (merthiolate or thimerosal) as a preservative. Ethyl mercury is used to protect the vaccine from germs. However, a small amount of thimerosal in 1 dose of 6 mcg cannot harm health. According to WHO standards, an infant can safely receive 5 mcg of mercury per week without health risks. In addition, merthiolate is eliminated from the body in less than a week, while methyl mercury can remain in place for up to 40 days. In fact, the mercury content in the food we eat is much higher than in 1 dose of a vaccine. For example, shrimp contain 27 micrograms of mercury per 1 kg. The tuna we eat contains up to 165 mercury per 1 kg, and fried halibut contains 70 mcg per 1 kg.
However, under public pressure, manufacturers began to create vaccines without the addition of thimerosal. Currently, vaccines containing and without thimerosal are available for sale in the Russian Federation. Russia produces a vaccine against hepatitis B "Combiotech" without thimerosal (thimerosal). Refusal of vaccinations with vaccines that contain merthiolate, however, could not stop the increase in autism in all countries, because the nature of autism is genetically determined and is not related to vaccinations.
Myth No. 2 - about the state making money on vaccinations
“The state and doctors make money from vaccinations, but children suffer from vaccinations”
It’s true that doctors’ responsibilities include providing vaccinations to the population, but they do not receive a bonus or other type of monetary reward for this. As for the state’s profit from vaccinations, on the contrary, it takes upon itself to protect the population from infections and provides free vaccination according to the calendar. In addition, the expensive process of creating vaccines is also financed by the state budget.
Myth No. 3 – vaccinations are worse than infections
“Vaccinations are more dangerous than the infection itself”
The truth about vaccinations is that every drug, including vaccines, has acceptable side effects. Complications after vaccination develop in isolated cases, but after an illness they are much more common and severe. According to WHO information, such a complication as vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis occurs in 1 case out of 1,500,000 vaccinations. This complication also often develops after the use of a live oral vaccine. In Russia there is now a question of stopping the use of a live vaccine and replacing it with an inactivated vaccine. In case of infection with polio, paralysis develops in every tenth case, according to statistics. During the polio epidemic in Africa, almost every school class had a student crippled by paralysis.
For other infections, the statistics of complications are also sad. Diphtheria is fatal in 1 case out of 20. During a measles epidemic, a complication in the form of pneumonia develops in 6 cases out of 100. Encephalitis as a complication of measles is detected in 1 case out of 1000. Measles vaccination in most cases occurs in the form of a mild reaction on the spot injections.
Myth No. 4 - about vaccination with DPT vaccine
“The DTP vaccine gives too many reactions, and the vaccine is needed. Vaccination is responsible for sudden infant death”
The truth is that myths about vaccinations include an unconfirmed scientific idea linking vaccinations with sudden death in young children. The so-called sudden infant or child death syndrome (SIDS or SIDS).
The sudden death of an adult or infant is known not only to doctors all over the world. Of the total number of sudden deaths, child mortality is no more than 9%. Most often, the syndrome is registered in the USA, New Zealand, England, and Russia. Most infant deaths between 2 and 4 months occur during vaccinations. In this regard, studies conducted at the US institute could not prove the involvement of vaccinations in infant mortality syndrome.
Myth No. 6 - about the dangers of vaccinations for children under one year old
“You need to wait with vaccinations until a year, when the child is stronger, and then vaccinate”
The truth is that a baby has protective maternal antibodies in its body until it is six months old. After 6 months, he can still receive antibodies against infections through his mother's milk. When bottle-fed, a child’s immune system after 6 months is very vulnerable to infections. At this age, the child begins an active life and comes into contact with relatives and neighbors, being at risk of infection.
By 6 months, according to the vaccination calendar, a child has time to receive protection against tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio. Thus, vaccinations guarantee the baby a safe introduction to the outside world.
Myth No. 7 - about the dangers of vaccination against hepatitis
“The hepatitis vaccine destroys the liver”
The truth is that the hepatitis B vaccine cannot have a negative effect on the liver because the vaccine is not metabolized there. The complex chemical processes of breakdown and transformation of the vaccine occur in the blood plasma, and not in the liver cells. The vaccine antigen is taken up by blood cells, after which the immune cells respond by inducing antibodies against the hepatitis virus.
Myth No. 8 - about hiding the harm from vaccinations
“The state is silent about the actual number of cases of side effects of vaccinations”
The truth is that according to the law “On Immunoprophylaxis of Infectious Diseases”, all cases of side effects of vaccines are included in state statistics. Doctors report cases of complications after vaccinations to the Federal Service for the Protection of Population Rights - Rospotrebnadzor. The system for registering and investigating complications after vaccinations in Russia actually works.
Myth No. 9 – it’s better to get sick than to get vaccinated
“Vaccination does not provide 100% protection against infection, then it’s better to get over the disease”
The truth is that the purpose of vaccination is not only to prevent infection, but also to get rid of severe and fatal infections. Even if the vaccination does not provide 100% protection, but less, then in case of infection the person will suffer from a milder form of the infectious disease. In this case, the infected patient will not have severe complications that can lead to disability for life.
Myth No. 10 - about the dangers of combined vaccinations
“If you are going to vaccinate a child, then not against several infections at the same time, but separately, at intervals, so as not to overload his immune system.”
The truth is that even a child’s body is able to simultaneously perceive 10 thousand antigens and develop immunity. The combined DTP vaccine contains 3002 antigens. And in the combined pentavalent vaccine “Pentaxim” there are only 45 antigens. At the same time, the immune system does not strain, but trains. When used together, combination vaccines contain fewer additives than the sum of the same vaccines taken separately. This means that the risk of allergic reactions from combination vaccinations is ultimately reduced.
In addition, a person receives fewer antigens with a vaccine than with food, air and water. After all, the air alone contains an innumerable number of different microbial antigens. And drinking water always contains antigens in the form of rods and bacteria that we cannot see with the naked eye. And the body adapts to such an army of antigens and produces antibodies. Have you noticed that when we come to another area where the drinking water changes, at first there is an upset of the digestive tract. This happens because the immune system has not yet developed antibodies to the bacterial composition of the local water. But then 2-3 days pass, and our immune system has produced antibodies that automatically continue to successfully fight bacteria in the local water.
In conclusion, we emphasize that most myths about vaccination are born from medical ignorance and fear of the unknown. We hope that our answers have provided clarity and will help change people's attitudes towards vaccination.
In Russia, vaccine production is carried out in state research institutes. Monitoring the quality of produced vaccines is carried out by the Research Institute for Standardization and Control of Medical Biological Preparations named after. L. A. Tarasevich. All vaccines undergo laboratory and clinical testing for safety of use. Doctors report cases of reactions to vaccination to Rospotrebnadzor. The purchase of imported vaccines and their registration in Russia are carried out under the control of the Ministry of Health.
Children's DTP vaccination
The country has a National Preventive Vaccination Calendar, which reflects the types of vaccines and the optimal timing of vaccination. One of the first vaccinations that a baby receives at a very early age is the DPT vaccine. This is why a large number of questions arise: what kind of reaction might there be to the DTP vaccine, how to prepare a child for the vaccine, and how to react to certain changes in the child’s health after vaccination. What is DTP? The vaccine contains components of three dangerous infections of bacterial origin: whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria. The abbreviation of the name includes the first letters of the names of infections and stands for Adsorbed Pertussis-Diphtheria-Tetanus Vaccine.
Today, several drugs are approved for use in the Russian Federation: this is a Russian-made vaccine that uses a pertussis component consisting of inactivated whooping cough microbes. The vaccine has a foreign-made analogue - Infanrix, as well as similar combination vaccines containing antigens of other infections, for example Pentaxim. Infanrix is sometimes also called acellular pertussis vaccine because Infanrix does not contain whole cells of the pertussis pathogen. They are destroyed and only those antigens that are important in creating immunity are extracted. Therefore, this vaccine is considered more purified and safer. After all, the main side effects of the domestic DPT vaccine are caused by the pertussis bacterium. It contains about 3000 antigens. Only 5 remain in the Infanrix vaccine, which significantly reduces the allergenicity of the drug.
The pertussis component of the vaccine is the most reactogenic because it contains whole cells of pertussis bacilli. It causes the development of immunity to the bacteria that causes the disease. To protect against tetanus and diphtheria, it is necessary that the body has protection not so much from microbes as from the toxins that these microbes produce. Therefore, the vaccine does not contain the pathogens themselves, but their toxins.
According to the National Vaccination Calendar, the DPT vaccination schedule is as follows: the DTP vaccine is administered to children three times - at the age of 3 months, 4.5 months and 6 months. The interval between injections should be 30–45 days. Children over four years of age are given a vaccine without a pertussis component.
DPT revaccination is carried out at the following times: after a year at the age of one and a half years. If the first administration of the DPT vaccine was later than three months, then revaccination is carried out 12 months after the third injection. At 7 and 14 years of age, children are revaccinated against tetanus and diphtheria using the ADS-M vaccine or its analogues. Adults receive booster vaccinations against tetanus and diphtheria every ten years.
According to data, on average up to 50% of children respond to DTP vaccination. After all, when using DTP vaccines, the body’s sensitization (sensitivity) to the components of the drugs increases. Most of the symptoms occur within the first 24 hours after the injection, but a reaction can occur within three days. There are local and general reactions to DTP vaccination. Local changes include changes in the skin and subcutaneous tissue at the injection site (redness, soreness, thickening). Common reactions include fever, rash, vomiting, loose stools, moodiness, and drowsiness. Fever and allergic reactions develop more often in response to the second administration of the DTP vaccine, when the body is already familiar with its antigens.
Material prepared by: Team of authors
Loading...
Take other surveys
