THE VACCINATION QUESTION

YES, THEY'RE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE IN KEEPING OUR CHILDREN HEALTHY

Dr. Ashraf Khan explains why vaccinations are safe and effective in keeping our children healthy, plus which Florida counties are at the biggest risk of a measles outbreak.

So far, Lee County has been lucky. Data from the Florida Department of Health (DOH) shows that our county has not seen a case of the measles since at least 2005, the furthest back that the DOH has publicly available information on the disease. However, the same can’t be said for the rest of the state. In fact, in 2018, Florida saw more cases of measles than it did in the previous three years combined.

A disease that we once thought was nearly eradicated is making a comeback. This is because, in large part, of a lot of false information floating around the internet—leading to an increased reluctance by parents to vaccinate their children.

When it comes to the health of our children, it is important to trust the advice of trained medical experts and remember the old adage that not everything you read on the internet is true. The fact is that vaccines are the safest and most effective way to prevent diseases such as the measles, which used to occur in devastating outbreaks.

It is a disease that should be relegated to the pages of a history book by now. However, the mass spread of misinformation on social networking sites has led to a resurgence.

A recent study, undertaken by the University of Texas at Austin and by Johns Hopkins University, revealed the 25 counties in the United States that are at the biggest risk of an outbreak. Four of the counties are in Florida: Broward, MiamiDade, Hillsborough and Orange.

Our region lies between three of these counties and serves as a popular travel destination for foreign tourists flying into the major cities of Tampa and Miami. Unvaccinated children are at risk of exposure at many public areas, including beaches and parks. And if exposed, they then run the risk of exposing other children at their schools.

At Lee Health, we have seen an increase in questions regarding vaccines—because of outbreaks around the country and increased media coverage. The customary age of vaccinating children is at the 12-month mark. However, in accordance with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control, we have started vaccinating children younger than that if their family is planning to travel before the child reaches a year old.

When it comes to the health of our children, it is important to trust the advice of trained medical experts and remember the old adage that not everything you read on the internet is true.

Some children and adults do have legitimate medical concerns that prevent them from being able to be vaccinated, heightening the importance of vaccinating healthy individuals to limit the risk of exposure. World health leaders recommend a 95-percent vaccination rate to adequately eliminate the risk of measles and protect those individuals who are unable to receive the vaccination.

While measles is currently making waves throughout the country, it is far from the only disease for which we routinely vaccinate. In general, vaccines prevent potentially devastating epidemics from spreading rapidly through our communities.

Our region presents unique opportunities for an outbreak to occur, especially with the approaching hurricane season. As was seen in 2017 with Hurricane Irma, a storm can leave people homeless and in shelters for weeks at a time, living in close quarters with hundreds of other people. This creates an environment in which a person carrying any preventable disease can potentially expose a large number of people at once. Vaccines can prevent this from happening.

We prepare for storms by buying extra water and batteries, but it is easy to forget we can also prepare our bodies to stay as healthy as possible when forced to evacuate and live in unfamiliar surroundings. Remember, when you get your children vaccinated you are not only protecting them from a potentially life-threatening disease, but also protecting those individuals they may encounter whose bodies will not allow them to receive vaccines.

While vaccines can come with side effects (redness, soreness, low-grade fever), they are minor and usually subside after a couple of days. There are dozens of myths floating around the internet linking vaccines to autism, but these are unfounded and not supported by medicine. It is vital to trust doctors and scientists—who have spent years studying the safety of these vaccines. Society is playing a dangerous “game of chicken” by taking medical advice from fringe Facebook groups and ignoring the warnings of trained professionals. The science is proven: Vaccines are safe and they save lives.

Remember, when you get your children vaccinated you are not only protecting them from a potentially life-threatening disease, but also protecting those individuals they may encounter whose bodies will not allow them to receive vaccines.