Your take on immunizations and are u concerned about contracting desease at work?

[Anagray]

Hello everyone. Here i come again with a question

I lived in NY state for almost 9 years. I have a 3 year old and we did all the immunizations, according to AAP.

From conversations with my family, who lives overseas, I discovered that in my home country immunizations are not done until the child is at least 5 months old, but the immunizations are given all the way through school. They include TB and small pox on top and the rest. The only vaccination they do not do is mumps.

I started doing research on vaccinations in US and for a second I questioned the purpose of vaccinating an infant so small - like preemies and newborns. I also talked to some parents who don't immunize at all.

Recently, I entered nursing school and got a job at a hospital. Titers/immuizations were mandatory.

After working in the hospital and coming in contact with everything, I am truly glad that I received my immunizations, because it has been 3 months and I haven't even had a cold, considering how many people I work with and how many isolation patients I have to deal with.

ALmost every mainstream american physician I met believes in immuizations.

How do u feel about it?

[fergus51]

A bit about why theer are new recommendations in place for immunizing all babies for HepB::: (they don't just pull this stuff out of the air cause they like to give shots to kids)

http://www.cispimmunize.org/pro/2002_main.html

Why is it recommended to give hepatitis B vaccine to infants when the greatest number of cases occur in young adults?

Prior to the implementation of routine infant hepatitis B immunization in the United States, about 15,950 (8,980-32,190) children under 10 years of age were infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) annually. Two-thirds of these children who became infected with HBV during childhood did not have HBV-infected mothers. These infections would not have been prevented by perinatal prevention programs that identify HBsAg-positive mothers and provide immunoprophylaxis to their infants.

In contrast to other vaccine-preventable diseases of childhood, HBV infections in infants and young children are usually asymptomatic. Thus, the small number of reported cases of hepatitis B among children represents the tip of the iceberg of all HBV infections in children. For every child with symptoms of hepatitis B there are at least 100 children with asymptomatic infection.

HBV infection during childhood carries a high risk of chronic infection. Based on the age-specific risk of chronic HBV infection, it is estimated that about one-third of the 1.25 million Americans with chronic HBV infection acquired their infection as infants or young children. Children who become chronically infected have a 25% risk of dying prematurely from liver cancer or cirrhosis. (8/99, updated 6/01)

[kitty29]

If I had children I get them the shots....I take whatever shots I need for my age group.

[Gldngrl]

Most states have statutory provisions that mandate vaccination and in fact, parents have been criminally charged for not vaccinating. There may exceptions to the statutory provisions that allow for objections based upon religion(many of those objecting under religious basis were home schooling their children and having limited contact with others).

I'm not saying that vaccinations are bad and all should refuse. People should be educated about vaccines and not simply rely upon the CDC as objective doctrine. It's also an issue of when someone should be vaccinated and my research illustrated that children received multiple vaccinations at the same time, because physicians were concerned that parents would not comply with additional clinic visits if the vaccines were given individually. Children are being vaccinated younger today with more vaccines and if they should have an adverse or fatal side effect, they have very few options. Vaccines have done a great deal of good for many, but they are still considered to be "unavoidably unsafe" and thus avoid strict liability, because their benefit outweighs the risk. If parents are told they must vaccinate their child, then why must they assume total responsibility when vaccine manufacturers are in a better position financially to compensate the injured consumers ? MMB

[LydiaGreen]

In Ontario, children receive hepatitis vaccinations in grade 7/8. My children have received all of their vaccinations and in years where the flu was really active, the flu vaccine as well. My son had a hard time with all of the early vaccinations (2,4,6, 13, 18 months and 2 years - MMR, DPTp). Each time, he would spike a temp and scream for several hours no matter what we did. By the 13 month vaccination, our physician was administering them himself and my son's reactions to the vaccines were somewhat decreased when he did them. I had done my research, thoroughly and consulted with several health professionals and parents in our area. In Ontario you can refuse immunizations for moral/religious/health reasons but must endure never-ending paperwork to achieve this. Any child without their immunizations is barred from school if there is an outbreak of anything until two weeks after the outbreak has ended.

I spoke with one family whose daughter had received a chicken pox vaccine when she was a normal, healthy, active toddler. Within a couple of weeks of that vaccine she was reduced to the mental abilities of an infant and became fully dependant on her parents for everything. This vaccine was years ago, 20 or more, and this girl is still mentally and physically like an infant but in an adult body. Apparently this happened with several of the children who received this vaccine - enough that it was pulled. I spoke with a family friend who had polio as a child and has endured the disability since - he's all for immunizations.

My brother also suffered with immunizations like my son did and grew out of the reaction by the age of 5. So, I decided to go ahead with them for my son. He also grew out of the reaction... each needle produced less and less of a reaction until there was no reaction at all. My daughter never had any reaction to any of her needles (she still likes to WATCH - she thinks it so neat that her "fighter cells are being given a picture of the bad germs so that they can beat them up before she gets sick").

As far as hepatitis goes... I'm thinking that perhaps my children should be immunized sooner rather than waiting until grade 7/8. We live in a fairly small town but like all places in North America, there is drug activity. My little girl found a used syringe in the sandbox at the neighbourhood playground. She stood next to the syringe so no one else would touch it and called me over. My children have both received extensive instruction about drugs and drug paraphenalia, not just because I am in nursing school, but because my father worked for the provincial police for over thirty years - he didn't want any of us to become statistics. But, what if a toddler had found that? Or worse, sat on it? It's too scary to think about. So, now I wonder if perhaps we should be immunizing for hepatitis a lot sooner than we do.

[TerriS.RN]

Do you think that perhaps your son got his asthma from one of the immunizations he received early in life??? My God-son did...he was perfectly fine and then his second set of shots short circuited his immune system. Think about it, asthma is an autoimmune disease. Take a look at how many children are not being diagnosed with chronic autoimmune diseases...look at the childhood cancers...why now??? Look at the number of vaccinations that the children are receiving--the increase in the past 20 years or so is unbelievable! Count me out and if I knew then what I know now, I would never have had my children vaccinated and I am a nurse of greater than 29 years!

[diane227, LPN, RN]

You know, I don't really worry about catching anything at work except a cold from co-workers who don't stay home when they are sick. I try to stay up on the immunizations and we screen all the patients for their immunization status when they are admitted and get them immunized if they are not. Hep B scares me more than anything else.

[redhairboy]

Do you think that perhaps your son got his asthma from one of the immunizations he received early in life??? My God-son did...he was perfectly fine and then his second set of shots short circuited his immune system. Think about it, asthma is an autoimmune disease. Take a look at how many children are not being diagnosed with chronic autoimmune diseases...look at the childhood cancers...why now??? Look at the number of vaccinations that the children are receiving--the increase in the past 20 years or so is unbelievable! Count me out and if I knew then what I know now, I would never have had my children vaccinated and I am a nurse of greater than 29 years!

Bingo!