New Meningitis Vaccine

I am all for immunisations (I was very ill with measles when I was a baby) and Seren will be having all her jabs but it always makes me worry that there are now so many injecytions and now they are adding another one. I obviously don't want her to get meningitis and would do anyhting to stop her getting it but it does worry me the amount of jabs she will have to have.

 

It's really frustrating - everyone says "Be wise and immunise!!!" but you don't know if it's the right thing with all the scares about autism and the MMR etc.

I suppose that the risk of side effects is always there but you are also taking a risk if the baby got anything like menC or measles or mumps. I hear they are even vaccinating against chickenpox now - and no harm. My class of 26 last year had chickenpox run through them all like wildfire - at one stage there were ten children absent - all with chickenpox! I have never seen anything like it, and it was a particularly bad strain, the children even got spots in their mouths etc.

The reason we are all pushed to immunise is the push towards a total "herd immunity". If we keep the immunisation rate at 98% or so, then the vulnerable people in our communities - like immune compromised kids and elderly people - are safer because there are fewer people to pass the illnesses to them.

My mother was nearly blinded by measles as a child. I had them fairly severely too. In Ireland, the health authorities are worried about the possibility of an epidemic of something like measles breaking out because our immunisation rate has fallen.

It's all very scary though, isn't it? I have my worries about Naomi getting the five in one when she's eight weeks old. I wonder if her little immune system can take it, but the HV will tell you that even babies could get up to a thousand vaccines at once without suffering any ill effects. It certainly makes you think.


Sue

 

I am all for it. I hate to take any risks, however, would rather have a jab than risk them getting the very serious illnesses that they could be exposed to, so for me the benefits outweigh the risks.

Please read this;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3530551.stm

I remember hearing that the MMR jab scare was due to bad research that should not have been published. So the jab is safer than most people think because of this stupid scare.

 

Good link minikins, its scary how one bit of bad research could cause so much debate. Even before reading that though I had decided to go ahead with the MMR as I didn't feel that there was sufficient evidence to link autism and the jab but like I said before I have been realy ill with measles and feel that the risk is too big. My cousin has had mumps recently, I had them when very small but she really suffered. I just wish that we were given more info though about the jabs, side effects and benefits.