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Busting the vaccination myth

Before the days of vaccinations, people had little option but to take their chances with whatever illness or disease was sweeping through their town.

However, once treated as lifesaving wonders of modern technology, vaccines have now become a source of suspicion and debate. So, the question is: to jab or not to jab?

What does a vaccine do?

Vaccines work by giving your immune system super powers against disease-causing germs. Before vaccines, people became immune only by actually contracting a disease and (hopefully) surviving it. So really, immunisations are a far easier and much less risky way to build resistance.

How safe it is to inject your child with a virus?

Vaccines don’t contain a whole virus, but rather an inactivated or dead, virus. This means the part of the virus that can infect you and make you sick is “turned off”, but the part of the virus that tells your body to create antibodies is still “switched on”. Your body’s antibodies will deal with the virus if you come into contact with it later on.

But why so many?

From birth up to the age of 2 years old, your child might have up to 20 vaccinations, and sometimes up to 6 at the same time! But breathe easy parents, many studies have shown that combination vaccines are no more likely to cause side effects than when they’re given separately. In fact, a vaccination schedule that spreads out jabs, or leaves some out completely, puts children at risk of developing diseases during the time that those jabs are delayed.

Childhood vaccines protect children from a variety of serious or potentially fatal diseases. If these diseases seem uncommon, it’s usually because the vaccines are doing their job.

The MMR Debate

The suggestion that there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been one of the biggest health controversies of recent years, based on a report published in the late 80’s.

It’s important to know that the report was heavily criticised, the doctor struck off the medical roll and the evidence tossed out as meaningless, but not before the public caught on to the idea and stopped vaccinating their kids. The result? Measles has become increasingly common, even in countries where it had previously been eliminated, like in the US and UK.

Since the original report was published, there have been a further 20 studies done – all of which prove that the MMR vaccine does NOT cause autism, nor is there any connection between the two. The bottom line is, the MMR vaccine is safe, and the riskiest course of action is to not vaccinate your child.