The virtues of vaccination

Recently, a book titled Autism’s False Prophets by an American paediatrician Dr Paul Offit spurred a furore against the anti-vaccine campaign and those who claim that vaccinating may lead to autism. City doctors seem to back Dr Offit in his venture of being pro-vaccine and so do the parents.

Dr Samir Dalvai, a developmental paediatrician feels that such reports should be believed only if they have a scientific documentation and are scientifically proved.

“Every medicine and vaccine does have side effects. But a larger good should be preferred over a small damage,” he says. He gives an example of the polio vaccine. If not vaccinated, approximately 200 people in a million will suffer from polio. The polio vaccine may cause polio in one in a million people, but if vaccinated the other 199 people are saved from the disease.

All vaccines undergo trials before coming into the market. Dr Dalvai who treats children with autism says, “There is no scientific evidence that autism and vaccination are associated.” Many vaccination programmes have suffered because of this misinterpretation. The anti-vaccine programmes end up in having a high risk of diseases.
According to Dr Jayprakash Hebbar, a family physician, the role of vaccination is very important and the eradication of a disease such as smallpox has proved it. He says that vaccination is life saving and is very important. “How do we eliminate diseases such as polio without vaccinating?” he asks. When parents with a dilemma about vaccinating their child come to him, he puts all the pros and cons in front of them and lets them decide what they want to do.

When it comes to the parents, they feel it is safe to get their children vaccinated as it assures that diseases will stay away from them. Asha Iyer, a mother of a seven-year-old daughter is pro-vaccine.

She says that the source of such reports need to be authentic and whether she would believe it or not depends on who publishes these reports. “In a country like ours, health is a burning issue and many campaigns such as the anti-vaccine have backfired,” she says.

“According to me, every child should be vaccinated and that too at an early age,” says Sangeeta Babbar, a mother of two daughters. She says that the decision of vaccinating the child depends on the parent and every parent has a different opinion. She adds that she has always been told that vaccinating is good for the children and she firmly believes in it. Believing in anti-vaccine or pro-vaccine is a personal choice. But the decision should be made only after checking the authenticity of the reports published, recommend experts.