Lit Review

Lit Review

     When visiting the doctor for a yearly check-up, many are told that they are not up to date on their immunizations. So, being that they are recommended by your doctor, you assume that they are safe and will have no side effects. Although this may be the case, some do have side effects that are more harmful than others. But, before having the vaccine injected into your arm, you should know what is in the syringe. When a person is vaccinated against a specific disease--chickenpox, polio or hepatitis B, for example--he or she is actually being injected with a weakened or deactivated version of the microbe that causes the disease. That way, a person's helper T cells can "remember" a certain disease without the person actually having to get sick (How Vaccines Work, 2007). Your body potentially creates immunity to that disease so it can fight it off when presented with the bacteria or virus later on in life.

In what ways is being vaccinated better than being unvaccinated and how does this relate to the cause of autism? There are many benefits to being vaccinated as well as negative side effects. Dr. Andrew Wakefield opened up a whole new side effect to being vaccinated that was completely false and caused a huge scare among parents. This side effect was autism, a developmental brain disorder that causes problems with social interaction and communication (Diagnosing Autism, 2009). His article led to outbreaks of deadly diseases that could have been prevented.

            When bacteria or viruses first enter the body, the immune system typically has a hard time fighting them off. But, since the child or adult has been previously vaccinated, the “memory” cells recognize the bacteria/virus and attack it before the deadly side effects begin (How Vaccines Work, 2007).

     The main point of immunizations is to protect everyone from deadly, unpleasant diseases. They are created to keep everyone safe and healthy, not to harm.

            Although vaccines are created with the sole purpose of preventing illness, some may still cause ill side effects. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has many side effects including mild problems like fever (one person out of six), mild rash (one person out of 20) and swelling of the glands (rare). Moderate problems include seizure caused by fever (one out of 3,000), swelling of the lymph nodes, and a condition known as thrombocytopenia, which is a temporary low platelet count that can cause a bleeding disorder (about one out of 30,000 doses). A severe side effect includes a serious allergic reaction (less than one in a million) (Risk Factors, 2007). Although there are many side effects to all sorts of vaccinations, the chance of actually getting one is extremely slim.

            In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield and colleagues published a case study in the Lancet, which suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine may predispose children to behavioral regression and inevitable developmental disorder. Despite the small sample size of twelve children, the uncontrolled design, and the speculative nature of the conclusions, the paper received large publicity, and MMR vaccination rates began to drop because parents were concerned about the risk of autism after vaccination (Chittaranjan, 2011).

            Immediately following the publish date of Dr. Wakefield’s article, epidemiological studies were done refuting the link that was previously made between the MMR vaccine and autism. The retraction tells us that "no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient" (Drennan, 2011). His study was declared false. This was accompanied by a statement telling us that Wakefield failed to disclose his financial interests. His study was funded by lawyers who were anti-immunizations. Wakefield and colleagues were then held guilty for ethical violations and he had his medical license revoked (Chittaranjan, 2011). Even though the article was retracted, it still traveled throughout the country. This caused public fear so parents stopped vaccinating their children, putting an entire community in danger because the majority of the population was no longer immunized (Drennan, 2011).