Vaccination Risks: Immunization, Autism, and Public Health Strategies

This essay examines the risks and benefits associated with vaccination, focusing on the concerns of parents regarding vaccine safety and potential links to conditions like autism. It provides an overview of the history and purpose of vaccines, detailing how they work to stimulate the immune system and protect against diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). The essay addresses common parental concerns, such as the crowded vaccine schedule and the presence of thimerosal, by citing research from medical organizations like the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and studies on the MMR vaccine. It explores strategies for communicating the benefits of vaccination to concerned parents, including providing scientific data, leveraging media reports, and fostering community support to increase vaccination rates and address vaccine hesitancy. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of immunization in child health, clarifies that research does not support the link between the MMR vaccine and autism or other disorders, and suggests the need for public health initiatives to promote vaccine safety and encourage vaccination.

Running head: RISKS WITH VACCINATION
RISKS WITH VACCINATION
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1RISKS WITH VACCINATION
Introduction:
This assignment mainly deals with the case scenario regarding immunisation. Vaccines
are antigens or the weakened version of viruses that are injected in the body to fight against a
particular disease (Knight-Jones, & Rushton, 2013). The feeble viruses that are contained in a
vaccine look alike the original virus however, does not produce any signs of that particular
disease (Atkins et al., 2013). It only stimulates the production of antibodies in the body and
increase the immune system. Vaccination has become one of the best method to fight against
certain germs like the small pox, Hepatitis B, measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and so on
(Grabenstein, 2013). These vaccines are given to the children on a regular basis. Due to vaccines
a number of childhood disease have become rare today. Some of the risks that exists in the use of
these boosters has been outweighed by the various advantages that it has. However, parents are
much concerned about the little side effects that these doses have. The following paragraphs will
provide a brief insight to the positive effects of vaccination along with evidences from scientific
research carried out by various medical organizations and explain the strategies for
communicating to the concerned parents.
Body:
Parents are raising questions on the relationship between autism and vaccines. They are
concerned about the general safety and risks of using the boosters. Parents are assuming that a
large number of vaccines are being used to increase the immune system and worried about the
MMR vaccine in particular because it consists a preservative thimerosal. However, certain
studies proves vaccine safety. I as a nurse can cite a number of examples that will prove vaccine
safety. Institute of Medicine (IOM) performed almost 60 studies on vaccine safety, which
showed that there is no such alarming issues regarding the safety of these boosters in addition

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they are associated with decreasing the vaccine-preventable diseases. Parents complain regarding
the recommended vaccine schedule being crowded. Therefore, IOM surveyed the vaccine
providers and researchers to gain information on the dose routine. They found that no such
serious issues exists with immunizing children frequently. Furthermore, they studied around
1000 children who were born between 1993 and 1997. The effects were studied after 7 to 10
years on 42 different neuropsychological outcomes (Iqbal et al., 2013). They found that the
performance of the children who were vaccinated on a regular basis performed better than the
children who were less vaccinated.
Another research was carried out in Northern California on the effects of vaccination on
77 babies born with metabolism disorders and 1540 infants with no metabolism errors (Sanders
et al., 2013). Research revealed that there was no connection between vaccination and
metabolism disorders. They said that on-time receipt of vaccine does not adversely affects the
infant with inborn errors. Reassurance was given to the parents that vaccination and metabolism
disorders has no association between them. They performed a detailed study on 715,484 children
between 2 to 3 years of age to determine the effects of combined inoculation (Sherman,
Anderson, Dal Pan, Gray, Gross, Hunter, & Shuren, 2016). They injected the MMRV (a
combination of the MMR and Varicella vaccine) to some children and a dose of MMR along
with Varicella dose separately. It was observed that the after effects of the booster like fevers and
seizures were more in children who received the MMRV dose than those who received the MMR
and Varicella dose separately. However, the effects were not so serious. Therefore, the
researchers assured that combined doses does not affects the children largely. A number of
parents argued for the negative effects of thimerosal in various vaccines. Studies performed on
109,863 infants born in U.K. from 1988 to 1997 proved there was no evidence that thimerosal in

3RISKS WITH VACCINATION
any dose caused neurodevelopmental problem in babies (Horne, Powell, Hummel, & Holyoak,
2015).
I often find that the parents are concerned more on the negative effects of vaccination.
They often refuse to give the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to their children. The main
reason behind the refusal is their past experience rather than the scientific evidences. A number
of parents who dosed their children with MMR have experienced deafness and measles
encephalitis in their immediate family (Phadke, Bednarczyk, Salmon, & Omer, 2016). Another
negative effect of MMR that the parents believed to have is autism. They refused to immunize
their children forecasting the after effects of vaccination like autism. It was assumed that the
long-term effects of autism were far more worse than the immediate effects of measles, mumps
and rubella. It was considered that if no problem occurred after the first dose then there is a less
risk of autism for their children. However, parents do not opt for the second dose. It is also
believed that decisions of the parents are highly influenced by the General Practitioners. Parents
refuse to vaccinate their children assessing that the general practitioners will be awarded lump
sum amount of money for each patient vaccinated. The guardians often complain that they are
not well informed by the doctors about the benefits or risks of the MMR vaccine. Moreover, they
are worried about the thimerosal content in the vaccine. However, I would like to inform them
about the risks of refusing the MMR vaccine. The unvaccinated children are more likely to face
the measles disease, which might lead to an increase in the mortality rates among children. In the
hospital, I have come across certain incidences where the mother refused to give MMR vaccine
to her daughter. The result was that she was diagnosed with mumps at the age of five. I as a
nurse would like to inform the parents about the safety of the MMR vaccine.

4RISKS WITH VACCINATION
Researchers have studied the babies with gastrointestinal disorders that lasted for 24
hours after the injection (World Health Organization, 2017). They found no such serious issues
regarding the illness, which might cause inflammatory bowel disease. It was even observed
whether there was any association between MMR vaccine and autism. However, the data do not
support this hypothesis. There are no strong evidence that shows the relationship between autistic
disorders and MMR dose. Survey was made on 155 persons with inflammatory bowel disease,
which showed that neither the MMR vaccine, nor the vaccination age was the reason for IBD
(Ng, Bernstein, Vatn, Lakatos, Loftus, Tysk, & Colombel, 2013). Another study compared
between 96 children with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and children who received
the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. All the epidemiologic studies failed to support the
hypothesis that argued for the association of MMR injection and autistic enterocolitis.
Strategies that should be undertaken to communicate the benefits of vaccination to
the concerned parents:
Susan has an issue regarding vaccination. She is worried about the negative effects of the
MMR vaccine. I would like to communicate to her about the negative impact on her child for not
receiving the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. She should understand the risk of the
diseases. Susan rely on her pediatrician about the information on vaccines. Therefore, I would
suggest the doctor to provide scientific data and figures in response to the concerns of the
parents. Media reports are yet another source of information that the Susan like to depend on
(Dubé et al., 2016). I think emotional messages and personal experience stories on the benefits of
vaccination should be shown on the television and I, as a nurse would like to inform her so that
she is no more worried about the risks of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

5RISKS WITH VACCINATION
I would like to educate Susan about the benefits of community immunity and the rate at
which the children of a community are being vaccinated. This will provide her a mental support
and enthusiasm to dose her child (Tafuri, Gallone, Cappelli, Martinelli, Prato, & Germinario,
2014). I would suggest her to join an online platform to communicate with peer groups who
might be also be vaccine hesitant. This would help her get rid of her concerns.
I would request her to participate in the committee meeting that will be organized to
gather information on why the parents are reluctant to vaccinate their children or do not complete
their vaccination. This would help her improve the relations with the community, and me, which
will directly give me the advantage to influence her decisions.
Conclusions:
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that immunization is one of the
important aspect of child health. There might be some issues regarding the MMR, MMRV
vaccine and autism. Parents believe that there is a strong relationship between the measles,
mumps and rubella vaccine and autistic disorders. This is the reason behind them being reluctant
to vaccinate children or not completing the vaccination course. They also believe that the dosing
routine is significantly crowded. However, research, studies and surveys revealed that there is no
connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. There is no association between
inflammatory bowel disease, pervasive developmental disorders, autistic disorders and the
negative effects of vaccination. Therefore, parents should be educated properly in this regards.
Immunisation programmes, committee organisation and media publicity will be required to
communicate to the concerned parents about vaccine safety.

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