by Tom Moore
Jokes aside, many of us remember reading in the news about
the breakout of measles at Disneyland in early 2015. I was working at a primary
care clinic in Colorado at the time of the breakout and watching several of our
patients rushing in with kids in arm, demanding vaccinations. ‘Why aren’t your
kids vaccinated already?’ is all that I wanted to say. I knew the answer
already though. Measles is not an imminent threat in the United States (unless
you’re going to Disneyland apparently). Measles is a threat to many other parts
of the world though. If people understand the dangers of these diseases then
perhaps the general consensus would be for vaccinations. Fortunately (or
unfortunately depending on how you view it), the general population of the
United States and many other developed countries, it’s citizens have the choice
to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. However, that is not even a question for many
people of developing countries. What is being done about this?
During his lecture, Dr. Chris Woods discussed the efforts being made to give the rest of the world access to vaccines for diseases such as measles and pneumococcal. There are many organizations public and private that are working toward the spread of vaccinations and eradication of disease. This includes research, development, and distribution of vaccines. What are some of these organizations you may ask? Meet GAVI The Vaccine Alliance.
Funded through the Gates
foundation and the desire to bring vaccinations to the children of the world,
an international immunization organisation was born. If you would like to know
what GAVI is involved with or the efforts they have made, you can simply go to
their website and they provide everything from the countries they are
contributing, the progress reports for each year, and even the goals set for
the following years to come.
Recently in March 2015, the
CEO of GAVI, Dr. Seth Berkley, spoke at a TED conference and discussed the
market realities of vaccinations. Research, development, and distribution of
vaccinations are risky financial decisions for pharmaceutical companies and
governments. There are even diseases that have limited vaccination research and
trial because of undesired financial marketing. For more about Dr. Berkley's TED
talk you can click on the link below:
Today we often hear the
question in developed countries, “To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?” This is
not a question that developing countries have the luxury of making, because
many people do not have access to vaccines. Fortunately, there are
organizations such as GAVI that are making it possible for people in the whole
world to have access to vaccines.
This past week I was discussing with one of my friends about whether vaccines cause Autism. She was worried that in my country we get too many vaccines and why do we allow it when here in the US people are opposing to it. I stepped back to reflect the whole thing, I have never thought of it at any point cause i never imagined it as a problem in Malawi. But now I think I need to as simple campaigns even if founded on personal opinions spread fast. I strongly believe prevention is better than cure and I am an advocate for immunizations. I haven't found any research that links autism to vaccines, if there is any I would love to read it. But I have seen the benefits of vaccines even in my own country. Science is really pushing the world forward
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting perspective, and one that I feel like many in Western countries do not fully appreciate. Deciding whether or not to vaccinate is truly a luxury. People joke about "first world problems," and this seems to be one of them. In countries with high prevalence of vaccine preventable disease, the issue is not whether to vaccinate, but how to obtain vaccines. I think this is something to keep in mind as we understand health in a global perspective; if we don't want the vaccines, I'm sure there are others who would be lining up for them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for discussing this unique perspective on vaccination, Tom! As an Immunologist, it is painful and horrifying to me when parents refuse to get their children vaccinated. It is indeed a privilege that these parents, who haven't felt the terror of their neighbor's children dying from measles, get to make that choice of not vaccinating the children despite the vaccine being readily available. As a parent they perhaps think that they are protecting their child from autism. I would like to highlight the role of media in this fiasco, where the causal link between MMR vaccine and autism was hugely sensationalized such that it still impacts parents' decisions regarding vaccinations. However, when the said "causal" paper was retracted due to fraud (the authors were SIMPLY trying to get their vaccine into market), this was not given enough media attention to clarify the facts in the minds of over-anxious parents.
ReplyDeleteI do see hope in parents who are actively seeking information from scientists, rather than media. I distinctly remember that my friends (who were extremely religious and conservative) came to me when they were about to have a baby, asking me to explain the Immunology behind vaccines. At the end of the 10 minutes, they were convinced that the benefits of a vaccine were far far greater than the potential risks (which does not include autism). I believe that only if scientists come forward to communicate the knowledge to the public, will we start seeing any change in vaccination behaviors.