I decided to start a new thread to show evidence or stories of just how serious these illnesses can be
And to anyone who disputes the severity of just how serious these well documented illnesses and complications of them are, I would seriously suggest reviewing some of your science courses
From another board I was reading.....
Obviously you are not of the generation of those of us who suffered through these illnesses. We ALL had measles, mumps, chicken pox. Oh, and let's not forget polio. Even an ear infection could result in complications. With the mumps you think you are choking to death. Oh yeah, testicular mumps can cause sterilization. The chicken pox left scars. But with the measles the scariest part was the high fever. I remember that illness in a dreamlike state. I remember the doctor making the house calls, my parents bathing me in alcohol to try and get the fever down. My mom told me I was delirious. Now picture that times the eight kids that were in our family.
Of course, the problem with the high fever is that it can lead to convulsions and other serious complications. I had an older cousin who got the measles at age 16. Her complications led to such severe brain damage that she was left with the mind of a two year old. She spent the rest of her life in an institution.
Because I was curious, I pulled out my Kindergarten and first grade report cards. I was absent 22 days in Kindergarten and 30 days in first grade. I remember as these illnesses would go like wildfire through the classrooms there would be 8 - 10 kids gone at a time. Pretty hard for a teacher to teach when kids are out for long periods at a time.
You can bet that when these vaccines became available our parents got us vaccinated. The Polio vaccine didn't become available until 1963. They did mass community vaccines for that. I remember going to **** School in ***** and standing in long, long lines of people waiting to get it. It was an oral vaccine and I remember they put it in sugar cubes.
I just wanted to add that please share any and all stories about current illnesses from not vaccinating
Especially as I know many of you have worked abroad, I know it is a privleged position for us in the western world that we mostly have to go back in history to find these terrible stories
I just couldn't figure out how to fit that all in the title :)
I work in PICU/stepdown and have seen some terrible, terrible things. The unvaccinated kids and the babies who are too young. They suffer terribly and some die. I can't specify much because of HIPAA but we lost another patient just last month to a totally vaccine-preventable disease. It was heartbreaking. I can't imagine the guilt those parents felt.
I have also traveled to a third world country several times over the past 20 years. I have seen polio victims begging on the streets, dragging themselves around on shriveled limbs with no hope of a good future beyond begging. Some of them were young teenagers.
On a less powerful note, but just to illustrate the effectiveness of vaccines, my child was at a sleepover with her friend 2 weeks ago. They shared a can of soda, ate out of the same bag of chips, and slept next to each other on the living room floor. The mom called me two days later and said her child was very sick with influenza A and was worried that my child was sick, too. Her child missed the flu shot this year. My child got her shot and has been perfectly fine. No flu. Not even a hint of it.
In sixth grade I missed two weeks of school due to varicella. I have a lot of scarring from it that really looks worse with time, believe me! I had them EVERYWHERE. Every mucus membrane, down my throat, up my nose, and in my lady parts also. Imagine that. NOT FUN.
But I really wanted to talk about polio. I worked with two people that had polio when they were kids, before the Salk sugar cubes were distributed. They managed to work and lead full lives, despite significant disability. My supervisor had a full-leg brace as it was completely paralyzed. The other lady had use of only one arm/hand.
I think some of the anti-vaxxers have sheltered lives in which they do not come into contact with such people, or choose to ignore them.
I have scars on my face from chicken pox. I had it bad at age 6.
My wife had a reaction to the DTaP and couldn't complete the series. She contracted pertussis from a nonvaccinated child (large community of them near her). She was miserable and out of school for nearly three months.
My father lived in the time before the vaccine and he got whooping cough too. Miserable and out of school for two months.
This brought back memories of the mass vaccinations and screenings for me. I lived in a big city then, It would have been 1970, the the year I entered kindergarten. There were lines of kids getting different vaccines and tests. We had vision tests, hearing tests, scoliosis tests, that one I hated as we to go behind a curtain and take our shirts off for the nurse to examine our spinal alignment. We had the sugar cube line and the shot lines. To this day I can't tell you what shots or how many I had, the only one I very clearly remember was the terrifying ""gun" that gave the smallpox vaccine. That thing was loud, and watching the line of kids in front of me reacting to that shot made it that much scarier. There are a bunch of us adults from that era sporting that tell tale circular scar, mine has faded over they years, but knowing where to look I can still spot it.
I got chicken pox at 10 years old. I was one of the "lucky" ones who just got the itchy blisters. My god I was miserable. Thankfully I just have little, barely noticeable craters in my face as souvenirs. I wet nursed a baby a few years ago whose mom was buying chicken pox lollipops online. The lengths people will go to avoid vaccination.....
I got chicken pox at 10 years old. I was one of the "lucky" ones who just got the itchy blisters. My god I was miserable. Thankfully I just have little, barely noticeable craters in my face as souvenirs. I wet nursed a baby a few years ago whose mom was buying chicken pox lollipops online. The lengths people will go to avoid vaccination.....
It blows my mind that someone would buy a piece of candy opened and LICKED by a stranger, but don't trust a recommendation (vaccine) from a doctor.
I remember the long mass polio vaccination lines. I also remember the horribly ill and deformed, deaf, blind infants born with mothers exposed to measles and it being spoken about in hushed voices. This will happen again and will become *significant* only when it happen to a militant antivaxxer.
I truly believe that unvaccinated kids should be refused admission to school. No vaccines, then you can homeschool your kids. The kids that truly can't get vaccines for medical reason should require signed letters from 3 physicians agreeing that their health wouldn't allow them to be vaccinated at that time. This would need to be done before starting school every year. Herd immunity only works when everyone else is vaccinated. Just as people are free to practice their beliefs doesn't mean the rest of us need to be impacted and affected by it.
I like the Dr's offices that make them wear masks and completely segregate them from all the other patients, even down to a separate bathroom. I think if you are going to see unvaccinated kids in your practice that it would be extremely negligent not to do it this way.
My pediatrician group had a separate waiting room for anyone with a fever. Obviously, it wasn't anti-vaxxer specific, however. Pediatrician's offices will be a risky place for a baby to be if the anti-vax movement continues to gain momentum. As we know, babies are extra vulnerable because they are not old enough to be fully vaccinated.
With this in mind, I wouldn't blame a doctor a bit if he refused to take on children of anti-vaxxers. His waiting room becomes a source of liability if he knowingly allows unvaccinated children free run of his office.
OMG, google "smallpox." The photos are HORRIFIC. We do NOT want that disease to resurface!
Smallpox is eradicated per WHO. It is no longer endemic in any human population and the last known infection was in the 1970s. We don't vaccinate the public for it anymore.
The only samples that exist are in CDC BSL4 in Atlanta and Biopreparat in Moscow...
Oh and also randomly discovered forgotten vials in a FDA/NIH lab in Bethesda...
Oh and also maybe possibly some vials forgotten or stolen from illegal covert Soviet/Russian biowarfare labs...
I have taken care of two Amish kids with tetorifice and an 8 year old with pertussis who had to go on ECMO! 2 of the three died. Totally unnecessary deaths from diseases that "aren't that bad".
And oh do I remember that smallpox gun. It made a terribly scary noise for 5 year old ears. I think that was the worst part. Well that and standing in line watching your little friends go back to the classroom all sniffly and teary. No mommies around.
dinah77, ADN
530 Posts
I just wanted to add that please share any and all stories about current illnesses from not vaccinating
Especially as I know many of you have worked abroad, I know it is a privleged position for us in the western world that we mostly have to go back in history to find these terrible stories
I just couldn't figure out how to fit that all in the title :)