Intimidating, scary and necessary: In this 2010 file photo, vials at the Tulsa Health Department of the flu vaccine. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World File
In mid-August, the Tulsa World reported that health officials are concerned that Texas measles outbreak could drift into Oklahoma.
You can read the article here.
Key sentence of the article: "
Most at risk are those who have not been vaccinated."
Another sentence for the fellow parents out there: "
The first dose of the measles vaccine is recommended at 12 to 15 months, and the second dose is given at 4 to 6 years."
New parent orientation
Less than a week before our daughter was born (she was earlier than scheduled), my husband and I joined other fellow first-time parents for a tour of the maternity wing of Saint Francis, as well as a Q&A session with a local pediatrician.
Another parent asked about the connection between child vaccinations and autism.
The doctor told us the story of Andrew Wakefield and a 1998 medical journal publication.
The February 1998 report
You can read the entire original report
here. Here is a quote from the report:
"Onset of behavioural symptoms was associated, by the parents, with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination in eight of the 12 children, with measles infection in one child, and otitis media in another."2004 and 2010 retractions
The Sunday Times began reporting on potential conflicts of interest involving Andrew Wakefield in 2004. All of the related articles to this Sunday Times investigation can be viewed
here.
The initial Sunday Times said this: "
Wakefield was the lead author of the report. He wrote that the parents of eight of the 12 children blamed MMR: they said symptoms of autism had set in within days of vaccination. The Sunday Times has now established that four, probably five, of these children were covered by the legal aid study. And Wakefield himself had been awarded up to £55,000 to assist their case by finding scientific evidence of the link."
"MMR" refers to the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.
This article quoted some of the co-authors. One of the Sunday Times quotes was "I am very, very angry. I would never have put my name to the study if I had known there was this conflict of interest, and had I not done so it would never have got published."
Quoting the 2004 partial retraction, made by 10 of the report's 12 authors, in The Lancet: "
We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as
the data were insufficient."
The partial 2004 retraction can be viewed
here.
A full retraction by the report's publication, The Lancet, was published in 2010, which can be viewed
here.
A personal choice
Parents make many choices when raising their children, including medical choices.
Oklahoma law states that children entering school can be exempt from required vaccines "
for religious or other personal reasons."
17 months ago, that local pediatrician wanted us new parents to understand two things: Vaccines save lives and parents do not have to choose between their child having autism and their child dying.
My husband and I also made a choice that day: That pediatrician is now our daughter's pediatrician. Our 17-month-old is always up-to-date on her vaccinations.
--Althea Peterson
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