Spot the problem
Last updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Print
Susan ErasmusBy Monday 1034 cases of measles have been confirmed in Gauteng and there has been one death. In total, four deaths have been confirmed countrywide.
Before I get pelted with rotten tomatoes for blaming parents, again, just bear with me while I ask two short questions: why here, and why now?
A reality of life
Measles is one of those grim facts of life from which we cannot escape. It falls into the same category as getting a call from your bank manager or having to go for a colonoscopy or a mammogram. There have always been measles epidemics, but the severity and the enthusiastic spread of this one have made me wonder what has changed. Because something has.
When I was six measles swept through the primary school. I remember the darkened room, the doctor doing a house call (can anyone under 25 remember this?), and feeling feverish and nauseous as I lavishly wet my bed and then threw up all over the floor. But enough about me. The point is, while just about everyone got sick, no one died and within a few days the measles was just a grim memory and another childhood disease ticked off the must-have list.
What has changed?
So what was the difference then? I have a suspicion it's called vaccination. Kids are supposed to have a measles vaccine at 9 months, again at 18 months and then some booster and catch-up shots later in life. I remember the long queue of spindly legs ahead of me in underwear as we awaited torture from the school nurse. School nurses, like school doctors, were actually not human, but from some sub-species still to be discovered in underground caves. But, boy, did they do their job properly.
I read on News24 that more than 1.4 million people in Gauteng have been given measles injections in the past two weeks and that health workers have been visiting schools and creches targeting children from the ages of six months up to both primary and high schools learners. But why only now? And when last was this done?
Isn't the very point of vaccination that it is a preventative measure and not something to be given only when the epidemic is upon us?
I have a nasty suspicion that there have been many parents out there who have either been neglecting giving their children the necessary vaccinations, or who have consciously decided not to.
Autism scare
Let me stop there for a moment. This is important: the original study that said there was a link between autism and the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella) has been REFUTED several times. It was nonsense, according to several follow-up studies published in reputable medical journals. Of far greater danger to your child is being the only one in the class who has not been inoculated. If a measles epidemic were to sweep through the school, who is going to be in the most danger? And what virulent strain of the virus is she going to pass on?
Government schools and many day care centres ask for inoculation certificates before they will admit a child. Is this rigorously done? Are there schools out there which don't do this? I do know the townships clinics do a fabulous job in this regard: for years I worked next to the hall where inoculations were done by the hundreds every Tuesday. It was earplug day.
Young kids are no longer the only high risk group for measles: immune-compromised individuals are too. And that was, at last conservative count, one in every 10 South Africans.
So, to end this on a stern note: vaccinations are one of the miracles of the last 100 years. If you haven't vaccinated your children, make it snappy and get it done. It's not just about you, or even them. It's about everyone who lives in this country.
(Susan Erasmus, Health24, October 2009)
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Your Comments
It' s happened
Doctors have been warning for a while that it' s dangerous if parents don' t vaccinate their kids - their predictions have now come true.
Dodgy parents
Thank you Susan.
Pharma companies
These companies sure do well out of all these vaccinations.
Great read
Thanks for managing to make me laugh even on such a serious topic.
No vaccinations
Two people I know have refused to have their children vaccinated. Wonder how they' re feeling about this measles epidemic? personally i think they' re crazy.
Immigrants
What about all the illegal immigrants? Who checks if they or their kids have been vaccinated?
Vaccine Reaction
My kids were fine until they got the vaccines last Tuesday! They got measles from the vaccine!
Measles from the vaccine
That' s how it works - you get a light dose of the disease and that is why you build up an immunity. But watch what the disease is like if you haven' t got your shots...
Virus
Does anyone know if the measles virus changes over time like the flu virus?
Vaccinations
We just had our 2 boys vaccinated. It cost me R680. We do not have a medical and it is a huge cost to bear. This can however not stand in the way of a healthy child
Your point, Susan?
I' m not pelting you with tomatoes but I certainly don' t quite see the point of this article. Are you hoping to make a difference with those parents who haven' t innoculated their children? Do you think that if they' ve chosen to not vaccinate their kids they would bother reading this article?
Govt clinics
Don' t govt. clinics do inoculations for free?
Eish
You know, one has to think about the cost to vaccinate the poor kids against measles, educating people about it and to service the people of the country because when one drives a BMW the last thing on your mind is children dieing from measles. Blame the poor parents who have not got a primary school education, who live in shacks and worry where the next plate of food is coming from. The Joke is that for the cost of our Ministers cars we could vaccinate 1 000 000 children.
Age
I' m pretty sure you don' t get the NMR at 9 months... it' s at least 1 year. I am also pretty sure that skipping vaccinations doesn' t cause stronger strains - you are confused with stopping treatment.
I don' t think kids should get every vaccination that comes about - only the diseases that kill the healthy or cause complications. I' m also not going to be first in line for new vaccines - I' ll wait for a few years of your guinea pig kids first...
Selfish
Some people are so selfish and only think of themselelvs.
Got it anyway
My 2 year old son has had evey vaccince to date that he should have, quite big on the vaccines as if we look at what it has done for diseases like Polio, it' s almost gone accept in Africa where not everyone is vaccinated.
Well as much as I am for the vaccines my boy got quite bad measles anyway and not from the vaccine but a few months aftewards, so they don' t always work.
Inconsideration
My child got the mutated version of measles and only after a parent heard me tell the school that was the reason why she was off for the whole of the previous week - did they wait until I left and admitted that their child had infected mine and had been sent to school with it - my child' s vaccinations are ALL up to date - mostly parents inconsideration is to blame for the outbreak
Eradicated
In so many parts of the world vaccination has just about eradicated these illnesses. Sigh.
Parents and vaccination
The interesting thing is that the parents who don' t want to vaccinate their kids don' t go to the homeopath when their kids get measles and become really, very ill. They go straight to the GP, where they should have gone in the first place for the vaccination.
Sums it up
This article just sums it up - well said.
vaccines
My kids did not have the vaccine. They' ve had measles already.
I' d rather they have measles than the rather large fallout from big pharma.
Vaccination is a lie. While it is arguably advantageous, in some respects, it has its own probems too. Look at the swine flu vaccine. Squalene? MERCURY? Oh yeah, thats really great for your growing kids.
And if you don' t like your kids catching illnesses at school, then keep them at home.
Educate yourselves please.
To David
So what about smallpox, David? Vaccines eradicated that after it killed miliions over the centuries. Would you rather have taken your chances with that or with the vaccine?
Free vaccinations at clinic
Re: Eish. All the childhood immunisations are available free from a government clinic. There just seem to be a large number of parents who think that immunisations aren' t necessary. This is what normally causes an epidemic, when a large number of children are not immunised. I cannot understand why anyone would want to put their child at that type of risk.
To David
What isn' t great for growing kids, David, is to be killed by preventable diseases. Get a life.
Cash
People who moan about the cost of these vaccines just need to go to the clinics. You might have to wait, but you won' t pay for it.
Vaccinations
I don' t see why people make a fuss about the measles epidemic, firstly it was the swine flu that was such a big issue, now this. Do you really now how many thousands of people die every year of your normal flu infections.Why don' t they make a fuss about that. Believe me the measles don' t even beat that.
Measels
How many mothers still breastfeed? The colostrum of mothersmilk is the first barrier of protection for the baby. In today' s society for so many parents its all about themselves and not what is best for the child. Why they have children is beyond my reasoning? MMR has been clinically tested and used with safety for how may years now. And then, of course, blame the pharmaceutical companies, doctors and high costs for their neglect. Kids don' t come cheap. Don' t have them if you don' t want to pay!
David
You are an idiot and proof that even our previously so called “ advantaged education” system failed us. You and other inconsiderate misguided people that gobble up conspiracy theories are usually harmless but in this case you are endangering the lives and wellbeing of your own and other children. Unforgivable. Not understanding science does not imply it to not be true!
Attack the argument, not the person
David has made a controversial statement, but the responses don' t refute what he says - only attack him and his ideology. He doesn' t say he doesn' t agree with vaccines at all, only that you should educate yourself first - i.e. find out what' s in them before you jab your kids and inject mercury into their little bodies, or find out if they are necessary at all. Pharma are making money - they aren' t alturistic.
untested vaccines will kill
Congressman Ron Paul has questioned why, despite his efforts to encourage the general public to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, President Barack Obama has refused to allow his own daughters to take the swine flu shot.
danger!!!!!!!!
As Spiegel Online reported earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and government ministers received a mercury and squalene-free H1N1 vaccine. “ The Vakzin [vaccine] does not contain disputed additives — contrary to the vaccine for the remainder of the population,” reported the newspaper. Soldiers in the German army were also given the adjuvant-free vaccine.
Measles
This article states that parent' s have not vaccinated their kids , I beg to differ, my baby had measles 2 weeks after he had his 9 month vaccination, my nephew who has also taken all his vaccinations also had measles.Just to let you know they went to the paeds for their vaccinations . So maybe there is more to this epedemic than we are being told..
@David
I would rather take my chances with well tested polio/measles etc vaccination than explaining to my child why I thought I knew better, and they now have to carry the consequences. Or worse having to go to the funeral of my child or another child that got the disease from mine just because I believed some crackpot.
Crackpots
Why are people always so willing to believe crackpots who have no scientific basis for what they say? Think of Matthias Rath and vitamin Aids ' cure' .
do your research before you publish
Dear Susan
Have you done any research into the high mercury levels in these vaccines? ESPECIALLY in the triple ones. Have you looked into what these high mercury levels do to a developing brain?
Have you looked into how measles can be treated and not cause death? Have you researched the conspiracy that goes on in the large pharmaceutical companies who cover up the truth?
Please, be a responsible journalist and do some proper homework before pushing your naive thoughts onto unwitting parents
Huh?
If these vaccines really poisoned kids, we and all our kids would have been dead by now. Like with the whole story about amalgam fillings. Quantities, people, quantities. I am sure pharmaceutical companies are not charity organisations - few big businesses are - but large-scale poisoning? Get a grip.
research
To anonymous: would all the doctors in world willlingly give autism to all their patients? Maybe you should do some research, anonymous, in medical journals, and not magazines. Without vaccines, this world would have been a different place.
Measles can kill
Measles cannot be treated, my kid got even though he got the vaccine and there was no treatment given but staying home. Measles can cause blindness in vit a def children and can cause pneumonia and even enchephalitis( brain swelling), so death. Even if you kid gets the measles with none of these bad side effects who says that they will not infect another kid who does get one of the bad things.
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