As reported on numerous news, measles cases have spiked globally over the last year, and in the Philippines alone there has been a 266% increase in measles cases. The country first declared an outbreak in Metro Manila, which reported 196 cases in January. The disease has now spread to five regions in the Philippines, causing 203 deaths since the beginning of the year. This is not the first time that the Philippines has suffered from a measles outbreak, with large-scale outbreaks also occurring in 2011 and 2014.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that spreads easily to unimmunised children and adults. The disease is very dangerous as it can make children susceptible to contracting pneumonia, which often leads to death. Children under five are at the greatest risk of contracting the disease and they make up 70% of measles cases.
Non-government organisations (NGOs) in the Philippines are currently focused on assisting unvaccinated children. However, parents are refusing these services, causing immunisation rates to drop to as low as 30% in some communities. The Filipino Department of Health (DoH) has attributed the current measles outbreak to ‘vaccine hesitancy’, a delay or refusal of the vaccine service despite it being readily accessible. In light of this, let’s discuss basic things that we need to know about vaccines so that we can all make an informed decision on the matter.
What is Immunisation?
Immunisations, also known as vaccines, is a protection effort to prevent infection caused by a virus or bacteria. It is done safely and effectively with the use of a small amount of a weakened or killed virus or bacteria or bits of lab-made protein that imitate the same virus.
When we get an immunisation, we’re injected with a weakened form of (or a fragment of) a disease. This triggers our body's immune response, causing it to either produce antibodies to that particular ailment or induce other processes that enhance immunity. Then, if we're ever again exposed to the actual disease-causing organisms, our immune system is prepared to fight the infection. A vaccine will usually prevent the onset of a disease or reduce its severity.
Why Should Someone Get Immunised?
The goal of public health is to prevent disease — it's much easier and more cost-effective to prevent a disease than to treat it, right? Immunisations protect us from serious diseases and also prevent the spread of those diseases to others. Over the years immunisations have thwarted epidemics of once common infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough. Some vaccines need to be given only once, while others require updates or "boosters" to maintain successful immunisation and continued protection against disease.
What About Immunisation Side Effects?
Today, vaccines are considered safe, with no possible exception of having side effects just as any other medication. However, in most cases, the side effects of vaccines are usually mild and considered as minor reactions such as soreness or redness around the injection site, as well as low-grade fever. Side effects like these usually disappear in a few days, and most likely will not harm children, other than making them uncomfortable and upset.
Children have also been known to have serious allergic reaction to a vaccine. These usually happen very soon after getting the vaccine, and doctors' offices are well equipped to handle such reactions. Medical providers agree that the proven preventive benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks of the minimal side effects associated with them.
How Effective are Immunisations?
Vaccines are very effective at preventing disease, but they don't work all the time, where most of the recommended childhood immunisations are 90%-100% effective, according to the CDC. However, for reasons that are not completely understood, sometimes a child will not become fully immunized against a disease after receiving a vaccine. This is all the more reason to get children vaccinated.
Children in whom the vaccine is 100% effective protect those few who have not been completely immunized — lessening everyone's chance of exposure to the disease. Even in cases where a vaccine has not given a child 100% immunity, the symptoms will still usually be milder than if the child had not been immunised at all.
The Consideration
Without having proper knowledge, we cannot make a definite and well-informed decision. There are parents these days who feel that it’s not necessary to vaccinate against rare diseases. This leads some to ask, "Why am I giving my child a vaccine against a disease that doesn't even exist?"
It’s a good question, really, and the answer is that it's the vaccines that keep these diseases so rare. Avoiding having your child immunised because of myths and misinformation about vaccine safety puts your child — and public — at risk. In communities where vaccine rates have dropped, these infectious diseases have quickly returned.