Anti-vaccination movements were born in the world when people stopped being afraid of infectious diseases. The fashion for not vaccinating children has also reached Poland. Parents who succumbed to it do not realize that the dangerous infectious diseases against which vaccinations protected them return with redoubled force. The awareness of the opinion-forming influence of the content published on the Internet inspired the editors of Poradnikzdrowie.pl and Mjakmama.pl to initiate the educational campaign "STOP INFECTIOUS DISEASES". Our goal is to provide reliable and opinion-forming knowledge about the long-term effects of the spread of infectious diseases.

STOP INFECTIOUS DISEASESis a long-term project, consisting of thematic cycles devoted to various infectious diseases. We start with meningococci - because although there are not many infections in our country, saving an infected child is still a challenge for medicine.

As part of the campaign, we will talk to experts, medical authorities, nurses and general practitioners who work with patients on a daily basis. We will answer the most frequently asked questions about vaccinations, their effectiveness, and we will explain what herd immunity or the vaccination threshold is - and what effects exceeding it will have.

We want to build social awareness and educate in the field of knowledge on the prevention of infectious diseases.

Say " STOP INFECTIOUS DISEASES ", learn as much as possible about infectious diseases and pass on reliable knowledge.

More and more people are wondering why vaccinate children when so many diseases they are supposed to protect against have long been forgotten? Since 1982, not a single case of tetanus in newborns has been found in Poland, and since 2001, there has been no incidence of diphtheria (diphtheria) - a disease that in our grandmothers' day took its death toll among children.

There is no Heine-Medina disease (polio) that causes death, paralysis and permanent disability. In 2001, the WHO announced that Europe was free of it, but polio vaccination has not disappeared from the compulsory immunization calendar. Epidemiologists fear that the outbreak of polio in Africa may bring the disease to Poland.

You need to vaccinate yourself. Germs spread quickly, and as long as they appear in the worldisolated cases of an infectious disease, a reduction in the number of vaccinations may result in a relapse of the epidemic. Vaccines protect us against diseases caused by dangerous bacteria, including those resistant to antibiotic therapy, and viruses. So treating these diseases is very difficult. Moreover, they can cause complications.

Valid herd immunity

Epidemiologists warn: when we stop vaccinating children, the controlled diseases will return. There is no argument by any means that the child was not vaccinated and did not get sick. He just succeeded because all the children around were vaccinated, which created the so-called herd immunity. If in a given area 90% of people are vaccinated against a disease. people, bacteria or viruses cease to circulate in the air and the focus of the disease is extinguished. But this immunity will end quickly as vaccination rates decline.

Western countries are already paying painfully for the demagoguery about the harmfulness of vaccines. After universal vaccination against whooping cough was discontinued in Sweden in the 1980s, the number of cases of pertussis rose sharply within 10 years. The same was true in Russia, where in the 1990s parents were discouraged from vaccinating their children against whooping cough (the combination vaccine also prevents diphtheria and tetanus), causing serious complications. At that time, there were as many cases of whooping cough and diphtheria as during World War II.

Important

The vaccine will not make you sick

The vaccine will not cause the disease it is intended to protect against. Usually it consists of dead microorganisms or their fragments, so getting sick is impossible. Live vaccines can occasionally cause an unusually mild form of the disease, for example, isolated, smallpox-like eruptions. Sometimes a child gets smallpox right before or after immunization and we blame the vaccine for it.

Pig and rubella harvest

In 2008-2014, an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases was observed in the United States and Europe. The viruses of measles and chicken pox were particularly hard hit. Following the recent outbreaks of these diseases in the US, it is said there that parents who knowingly failed to vaccinate should be brought to justice. In countries where vaccination is not compulsory, the number of mumps cases is increasing every 3-5 years. In 2003, 82% of those vaccinated in Great Britain were vaccinated. inhabitants and 1,500 cases of mumps have been reported. In 2004, the number of vaccinated persons decreased by 2%, and the number of patients increased to 3,700. In Poland, in 2010, 2,747 cases of mumps were registered. The number of rubella cases is also increasing in Poland.

This is the aftermath of ill-considered prophylaxis. Over the years, only girls were vaccinated andwomen to prevent congenital rubella, which is more severe than acquired rubella. In childhood, the unvaccinated men began to fall ill. And because rubella is often asymptomatic, a young person may not know they are infected and 'sells' the disease on. Fortunately, all children have been vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella since 2004.

Killer "smallpox party"

We are wrong to fear vaccines more than infectious diseases. There is still a belief that childhood diseases are trivial and that it is best to catch them in order to immunize the body. They always carry a risk of serious complications and unnecessarily expose the child to suffering. - During over 30 years of work in the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the Medical University of Warsaw, I saw many tragedies due to the carelessness of my parents - says Dr. Ewa Duszczyk. - Mumps deafness, chickenpox meningitis. Two or three years ago, there was a fashion for "smallpox party" in Poland. When parents heard that their friends had smallpox, they brought their child to catch the infection. Later, many little ones came to my ward with severe bacterial or neurological complications. Vaccination is just one prick, and a hospital stay due to complications is intravenous administration of drugs, sometimes surgery.

Important

Not true that vaccines cause autism

There are rumors that vaccines can make you sick. They began with the publication in the journal "Lancet" (1998), in which the London doctor A.J. Wakefield reported an association of measles, mumps and rubella vaccination with inflammatory bowel disease and mental development disorders, mainly autism. The world of science was amazed, because no other research has confirmed it. Panic broke out in Britain, vaccinations were stopped, and the measles outbreak with encephalitis and deaths returned a few years later. Dr. Wakefield finally admitted that his work had been manipulated. Parents of children who had had autistic behavior before vaccination paid her to get compensation from pharmaceutical companies, Lancet published corrections and removed the job, but it was too late - vaccination coverage had dropped in many countries. Numerous studies have debunked other rumors as well. Vaccinations do not cause autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. They are not related to atopic dermatitis, food or inhalation hypersensitivity, whooping cough, type 1 diabetes or optic nerve atrophy.

Read more: Vaccine autism is a myth - the theory linking vaccines to autism was a hoax

Dangerous meningococci, pneumococci and rotaviruses

Meningokoki thisbacteria that cause invasive meningococcal disease presenting as sepsis or meningitis. Of the 5 types of meningococci that cause disease in the world, meningococcus serogroups B and C dominate in Poland and Europe. They cause the majority, because more than 90 percent. illnesses.

Invasive meningococcal disease is a particular threat to young children - 77% of IChM cases in children under the age of 1 are caused by serogroup B.

A child may become infected with meningococcus as a result of contact with an asymptomatic carrier of these microbes, less often with a sick person. The infection is transmitted by airborne droplets and through close, direct contact with the secretions from the upper respiratory tract of the host or patient. Possible symptoms of IChM that are particularly worth paying attention to are: fever, fatigue, vomiting, cold hands and feet, cold chills, severe pain in muscles, joints, chest and abdominal cavity, rapid breathing, diarrhea.

Invasive meningococcal disease proceeds very quickly, the symptoms are confusing, and the time to react and help the doctor is very short. Often the first symptoms resemble the flu and are treated with home remedies. Unfortunately, the infection progresses rapidly and can be fatal within 24 hours. Usually, patients are admitted to the hospital in a serious condition, when, despite treatment, the disease can cause serious and permanent consequences in the child.

Despite intensive hospital treatment, IChM may have permanent consequences, such as hearing loss, brain damage or limb amputation. Invasive meningococcal disease is respected by anyone who has de alt with an affected person. It is important to know and remember that meningococcus may be the cause of sepsis. This is not common knowledge - according to Millward Brown research, only 9 percent. of respondents mentioned sepsis as a possible consequence of meningococcal infection.

Pneumococcus, or diphtheria, are equally dangerous.

Pneumococci can cause many diseases. The most common infections, called invasive, are:

  • acute pneumonia
  • meningitis
  • bloodstream infection (bacteremia)
  • generalized blood poisoning (sepsis)

Pneumococcal vaccination is compulsory (free) for all children born from 2022 onwards.

Rotaviruses are very dangerous pathogens that cause acute, watery diarrhea (administered even several times a day), high fever (up to 40 degrees C) and upper respiratory tract infections. They should not be underestimated, because of rotavirus 20-30 thousand. kidshe is hospitalized annually. Vaccination against rotaviruses should be started as early as possible in order to protect babies against severe rotavirus infection and hospitalization due to dehydration. You can start from the 6th week of the child's life.

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Do not be afraid of combination vaccines

Parents are especially concerned about combination vaccines, which give immunity against several diseases at the same time. They have been used in the world for years and have not been found to have any side effects. On the contrary, they produce fewer post-vaccination reactions. Single vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella were replaced by a modern combination vaccine, MMR, combining these three components. Will the body withstand such a dose of germs? Studies have shown that if an infant were given up to 11 vaccines during one visit, they would only employ 0.1% of them. the capabilities of the immune system. Vaccines, especially the combined ones, are getting better and better purified, contain less solvents and preservatives and a negligible amount of microorganisms, so the child does not get a viral or bacterial "bomb", as we imagine.

Let reason prevail

We are afraid that the vaccination will hurt, low-grade fever, fever, local post-vaccination reaction. High temperature in children is a serious risk, it can cause seizures, but there are ways to avoid it. You have to measure your fever frequently, and if necessary, give you a temperature-lowering agent, and apply cool compresses. If you do not manage to get rid of the fever, consult a doctor immediately - he will advise you what to do. In Poland, tens of thousands of children are vaccinated daily, and serious complications are extremely rare. Post-vaccination reactions (redness, pain) are only temporary. Let's put 2-3 days of discomfort after vaccination on one side of the scale, and on the other, an illness that has an unpredictable course may end up in hospital, lead to kidney, heart and liver damage, neurological changes, and even death.

You must do it

Examination first, then vaccination

Only a perfectly he althy child may be vaccinated. Therefore, before administering the vaccine, it must be tested. It is not burdened with a vaccine in an organism weakened by the disease. The absolute contraindications are: acute illness with fever, weakened immune system, e.g. due to cancer, hypersensitivity to vaccine components, severe post-vaccination reactions to the previous dose. Children with chronic diseases are vaccinated during remission. Children's He alth Centerissued a recommendation on how to vaccinate a child with immunodeficiency.

Note:When a child cannot be vaccinated or the entire vaccination cycle has not been completed yet, parents, older siblings and grandparents should get vaccinated - this gives the cocoon effect to protect against disease.

The article uses pre-meningokoki.pl materials

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Child's he alth