Pros and Cons of Immunization

Cons:

Vaccines found to contain mercury; are vaccines safe?
Discusses the dangers of mercury in vaccines which are linked to several diseases including autism.

The great thimerosal cover-up: Mercury, vaccines, autism and your child's health
Discusses the preserving agent used in vaccines, thimerosal.

Pros:

Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccines: a review of efficacy data
"Conclusions. Particularly where vaccine coverage is high, it is now likely that Hib disease can be eliminated using Hib conjugate vaccines in infancy."

Immunization and Vaccines

My thoughts:

Current thoughts on the risks and benefits of immunisation.

"Despite a continuous search for safer and more immunogenic vaccines, adverse reactions still occur. Adverse reactions to vaccines are generally mild; severe events resulting in death or permanent damage are rare. In every instance, the benefits of preventing the disease far outweigh the risks of vaccination. In the early days of vaccine development, a number of accidents were associated with faulty production. Most recent problems encountered with the use of vaccines are due to programmatic errors. Because of the large number of doses administered it is probable that there will be some temporal and merely coincidental association between adverse events and vaccine administration. Immunisation has a direct protective effect for the individual and an indirect effect on herd immunity for the community. The major goal of postmarketing surveillance is the early detection of and appropriate response to adverse events in order to curtail a negative impact on immunisation programmes. Risk-benefit analyses for immunisation are faced with a number of potential difficulties; definition of the risks and benefits themselves, individual versus community risks and benefits, and the continuously evolving nature of risks with changes in disease epidemiology. Based on risk-benefit studies, for an individual just as for the community, it may not always be of interest to use the vaccine with the lowest complication rate. Good immunisation programmes should help to decrease the risk of adverse effects."

Duclos P, Bentsi-Enchill A.

Childhood Immunisation Division, Health and Welfare Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

Emaan at 2 months and 2 weeks

My experience with Emaan's first vaccinations

Assalamu alikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

InshAllah you are all doing well. I know I haven't written for a while or posted anything, but I'm just enjoying Emaan these days. Alhamdullilah she's almost 2.5 months now and growing day by day. I'm having such an amazing time with her and honestly it feels amazing. My only problem is dealing with these overwhelming emotions towards her. The biggest example is when Emaan went to get her first set of vaccinations.

I went for my 2 month appointment to the doctor's and was completely unaware of the fact that Emaan was due for her first set of vaccinations for DPTpolio (Diptheria, Pertussis, Tuberculosis and Polio) and Hib (Haemophillus influenza type B) or the 5 in 1 as they call it. I was so unprepared that I told the R.PN that there was no way int he world Emaan was going to get her vaccinations that day so she booked an appointment for after the weekend as I had gone on a Friday. I tried to do my research over the weekend and called a friend of mine in the health field to ask if vaccinations at 2 months of age were actually necessary. She told me that if I was exclusively breastfeeding and wasn't planning on going out of the country any time soon then it wasn't really necessary. So on that Monday I called the doc's and said forget it she's not coming. Ofcourse knowing my family doc she called me back and said, "Yumna, it's really important that she gets these vaccines." I know I should have done more research but from the little research that I did I figured that the benefits outweighed the risks. Also, I was planning on going to Toronto and with so many people travelling from overseas I was getting a little paranoid thinking someone might sneeze or cough on her and she may get something. You can't imagine the crazy scenarios my brain was coming up with. Honestly, I was torn between going or not going.

Eventually..I went. Ofcourse my husband was by my side. My sister in law's son, who was born a day before mine, had an appointment before Emaan to get his vaccination. When we arrived there I went in to see my sister in law and found her son latched on to his mom drinking his milk peacefully. I was still pretty nervous. I kept thinking, my poor little baby has no idea what's coming.

As Joanne, the R.PN, came to get us she smiled reassuringly and told me not to worry. Emaan was then put on those horrible examination beds so that Joanne's intern could check her hips and measure Emaan. Ofcourse Emaan being the kind of happy child as she is, was smiling and talking away. She was just tearing my heart into pieces. Finally it was time.

I decided I was going to hold her. Emaan's father gave Emaan a kiss and a tight squeeze then passed her to me. She was to get two needles, one in each leg, and they were going to be put in simultaneously. I couldn't look. I just held Emaan tight in my lap as Omar (Emaan's dad) looked over my shoulder. "1, 2, 3..poke." I heard a short shriek then I looked down at Emaan and her entire face was blood red and her mouth wide open in the middle of a horrible cry. At that moment I began to bawl. I just cried and cried. I held my little baby close to me and just rocked her. Those of you who know me personally can understand that this was one of the most difficult things I had to endure. However, I have to say this..it took less than 2 minutes for Emaan to calm down. I fed her a little and then she was sound a sleep.

Joanne and the intern had left Omar, Emaan and I alone for a while. We had to stay there for 20 minutes any way to see if Emaan was going to get some sort of a reaction. She didn't. In the end it was all ok. But for a new mom like me I hated the experience. I have no idea what I'm going to do when Emaan has her first fall.


..I'll be posting up some research on vaccinations soon. As well as the controversy behind it.