Vaccination & epidemic

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

There are more cases of whooping cough being reported among small children recently. It has been attributed to less people immunizing their children.

Actually, that doesn't make sense. In most cases the children who got the whooping cough were not deliberately unvaccinated, they were younger than the vaccine schedule would have them immunized. In my friend's case, there's no question that she got the disease from her mother. Except her mother was vaccinated as a child, just like we all were. Her mother got the disease because, as doctors will freely admit, a vaccine doesn't give you lifelong immunity like having the disease does. It wears off. It is the millions of adults walking around who are now susceptible to the disease again because their childhood vaccines have worn off, rather than the handful of unvaccinated children. There's been a big push in this country--for over three years, at least, because I got all the handouts when my first one was born--for new parents to re-immunize themselves against whooping cough, so they won't pass it to their baby. We've set ourselves up to need lifelong "booster shots."

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Actually, that doesn't make sense. In most cases the children who got the whooping cough were not deliberately unvaccinated, they were younger than the vaccine schedule would have them immunized. In my friend's case, there's no question that she got the disease from her mother. Except her mother was vaccinated as a child, just like we all were. Her mother got the disease because, as doctors will freely admit, a vaccine doesn't give you lifelong immunity like having the disease does. It wears off. It is the millions of adults walking around who are now susceptible to the disease again because their childhood vaccines have worn off, rather than the handful of unvaccinated children. There's been a big push in this country--for over three years, at least, because I got all the handouts when my first one was born--for new parents to re-immunize themselves against whooping cough, so they won't pass it to their baby. We've set ourselves up to need lifelong "booster shots."

Whether it makes sense or not, that's what is being reported.

A resurgence in the disease has been attributed to less people immunising over the last 10 to 15 years, so it's more prevalent in general, which means it's more likely that an unimmunised child/baby could come into contact with the disease.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Whether it makes sense or not, that's what is being reported.

A resurgence in the disease has been attributed to less people immunising over the last 10 to 15 years, so it's more prevalent in general, which means it's more likely that an unimmunised child/baby could come into contact with the disease.

As I understand it, there has to be roughly 95% vaccination rates for them to be effective at a societal level. Currently, the NorthEast of England is running at about 85% takeup (with some areas of the NE even lower): worryingly, this region is currently experiencing its biggest measles outbreak for 20 years.