Many future parents, before leaving for the countries of North America, namely the USA, think about the issue of compulsory vaccination of children, how to vaccinate in preventive or mandatory modes. Also, in accordance with US immigration law, every foreign citizen must provide documentation of completed immunizations for certain diseases.
Vaccinal prophylaxis is carried out with the consent of the parents, but has a number of features:
- for newborns, the vaccine is administered in the hospital after birth, and the first drug against hepatitis B is administered intradermally on the surface of the left shoulder;
- vaccination against tuberculosis is not carried out because the disease is considered defeated;
- After vaccinations, parents receive an immunization card in which all vaccinations are recorded.
What vaccines are given to children in the USA and CIS countries?
In America, in almost every state, children are immunized more actively than in the CIS countries, because more types of vaccines are introduced.
Children are actively administered immune drugs against rotavirus infectious diseases to prevent intestinal flu.
Every year they are required to vaccinate against chickenpox, and drugs against pneumococcal infection are administered four times. It is worth considering that children in the United States are vaccinated earlier.
The main vaccines for the first year of life are given starting from the second month of a baby’s life.
The main dangerous stage in the first year of vaccination for children is considered to be a complex drug to prevent mumps, measles and rubella. In Russia, a similar vaccine is divided into two.
What are the disadvantages?
Vaccination is one of the main triumphs of modern medicine. Despite the risks of side effects, these risks are very low, problems are very rare and all are much less serious than the risks associated with the diseases themselves. Many of today's parents grew up without seeing the diseases we vaccinate our children against, so it is sometimes difficult for them to understand why vaccination is so necessary, especially if their child experiences a fever or leg pain after the vaccine. Anyone who has seen children with whooping cough, babies suffocating from diphtheria, and children disabled as a result of bacterial meningitis knows for sure that vaccination is necessary. However, you should be informed of the risks of all medical procedures. Here are some risks associated with vaccinations to be aware of.
US national vaccination calendar and similarities and differences with European countries and Russia
Based on data from the national vaccination calendar, most types of vaccines for certain diseases are actively administered in childhood in most countries, including the USA, Russia, and Europe.
The following diseases are subject to mandatory immunization:
- diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough;
- measles, influenza, hemophilus influenzae infection;
- rubella, polio, mumps.
The United States is a distinctive feature among countries in hepatitis vaccination, because in other countries this vaccination is not included in the calendar of mandatory immunoprophylactic procedures.
Vaccination against tuberculosis is not given in all countries except Russia. The chickenpox vaccine is mandatory for children in the USA and Germany; in Russia, this practice began in 2015, as did the pneumococcal vaccine. In the USA, Germany and Great Britain, a vaccine against the papilloma virus is mandatory, but in the CIS countries this is not provided.
Among the countries of Europe, the CIS and North America, namely in the USA, vaccination includes the largest number of procedures to prevent a significant part of diseases, with the only exception being vaccination against tuberculosis.
Myths about vaccination
“These diseases are no longer relevant, so what’s the point?”
Not true:
All of these bacteria and viruses that are vaccinated against still exist around us around the world. Every year there are outbreaks of these diseases and deaths among unvaccinated children. “My baby is small (or was born prematurely). He is too young to be vaccinated.”
Not true:
Small, weak babies are at greatest risk if they contract any of the diseases you can vaccinate them against. They need vaccinations exactly on time, without adjustment for prematurity. “I’m breastfeeding, so my baby is already protected.”
Yes and no:
Your breast milk actually contains powerful infection-fighting proteins and cells. However, the level of specific protection is not high enough to ensure complete safety for your baby. He needs to develop specific antibodies to the diseases he encounters. “Vaccines still don’t work—you can still get sick.”
No and yes:
The vaccines work very well—90 to 99 percent of the time. There is a small chance that your baby will be among the unprotected, but this chance will become very miniscule if the child receives the full range of vaccines. For those who become ill after vaccination, the illness is usually mild. “These vaccines cause autism - I heard about it on TV.”
Not true:
It’s just that the onset of signs of autism and some vaccinations coincide in time. But after years and years of research, there is no scientific evidence that this disorder is caused by vaccination. Autism is caused by problems in very early (prenatal) brain development.
Mandatory vaccination to obtain a US visa and green card
To obtain a visa in an American country or change your status in order to obtain a residence permit, you must prove vaccination against a number of diseases:
- measles, mumps, rubella;
- polio, whooping cough, hepatitis B;
- tetanus, hemophilic influenza B;
- any other diseases on the recommendation of the advisory government body on immunoprophylaxis.
To apply for a green card or permanent residence permit in the United States, you must undergo a medical examination that has been approved by the State Department, and before your appointment with a physician, you must collect all the necessary documents, including medical records and vaccination certificates.
If certain types of vaccinations are missing when checking for compliance with vaccination requirements, then the required procedures must be completed to administer the drugs. You can get vaccinated from your doctor or before traveling abroad.
In any case, when completing the vaccination eligibility test, you must provide proof and complete all Form I-693 requirements.
In the US, recommendations for vaccination of adults have been revised
A national advisory group of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revised recommendations regarding vaccination for adults, which can be found in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The main changes concerned influenza vaccination, as well as recommendations regarding vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B and meningococcal disease.
CDC sets adult immunization schedules based on recommendations from The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a group of medical experts whose advice reflects the latest advances in immunization science. Doctors in the United States use an annual schedule to ensure patients are eligible for vaccination based on age, health status and other factors. The list includes 13 vaccines.
Adults need vaccinations to avoid developing seasonal and other illnesses that can lead to poor health and sickness absence from work, said David Kim, deputy director for adult vaccinations in the CDC's Division of Immunization Operations.
Below are key changes to vaccine recommendations for adults in the United States.
Avoid using nasal influenza vaccine. Unlike traditional flu shots, the nasal vaccine contains a weakened flu virus. Studies have shown that the nasal flu vaccine is not effective.
Influenza vaccine for people with egg allergies. Experts note that patients with a moderate or severe egg allergy can receive any approved influenza vaccine, but should do so under the supervision of a physician who is able to recognize and manage severe allergic conditions. In turn, last year's recommendations contained information that such individuals should be vaccinated against influenza with a vaccine that does not contain components derived from eggs.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for adolescents. Young people who receive the first dose of HPV vaccine before age 15 and the second dose at least 5 months later can receive just 2 doses instead of the 3 previously recommended.
The HPV vaccine protects against the development of cervical cancer and a number of other tumors that are associated with HPV.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) supports new recommendations for only 2 doses of the HPV vaccine for boys and girls who begin vaccinations between ages 9 and 14. However, experts from the CDC and ACC still recommend 3 doses of HPV vaccination for young people who were not immunized as teenagers. Vaccination can be given to women under 26 years of age and men under 21 years of age.
New recommendations for vaccination of HIV-positive individuals. Adults with HIV infection should receive 2 doses of the combination meningococcal vaccine to protect against a potentially fatal bacterial infection of the brain and spinal cord.
Hepatitis B vaccine for adults with chronic liver disease. The new US Immunization Schedule now includes patients infected with the hepatitis C virus among those with chronic liver disease who could benefit from hepatitis B vaccination. The list also includes patients with cirrhosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis and persons with elevated levels of certain liver enzymes.
In general, according to ACIP experts, the level of immunization of adults against a number of infectious diseases is far from recommended, in particular this applies to vaccination against influenza, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.
Based on materials from www.medicinenet.com
Thousands of complaints
Now it’s not difficult to guess why De Niro’s film produced the effect of a bomb exploding in American society. In fact, publicly and with facts in hand, something was proven that until that moment had only been discussed by parents on Internet forums.
It should be noted that both Wakefield and Hooker, together with other scientists from different fields, were able to collect tens of thousands of evidence of complaints from parents whose children were harmed by MMR vaccination. All the parents talked about the same thing: the vaccination was given in the morning, the temperature rose in the evening, the next morning the child lost the ability to speak, navigate in space, stopped walking and became detached from the world, after which only therapy with the strongest antibiotics helped.
Russian pediatricians with whom Octagon was able to talk claim: even now, almost any research that differs from the CDC’s conclusions regarding the connection between diseases and vaccinations is recognized by world health organizations as unproven, and the doctors themselves are considered almost swindlers.
However, by 2000, Andrew Wakefield’s report, which he presented to the US Congress, contained more than 2,000 pages of conclusions and facts confirming the direct link between the vaccine and autism. After hearing the report, Congress ordered the CDC to investigate the issue to see if there really was a link between the disease and vaccines. Moreover, the main conclusion in the report of Wakefield and a group of scientists was a recommendation to abandon the triple vaccine in favor of single vaccines and continue the study of MMR.
It was at that moment that timid hope arose in society: maybe the US authorities would finally listen to the opinion of experts and draw conclusions? Conclusions were indeed drawn, although they were not at all what people expected.
