The BBC today announce that we are due for yet another vaccine, this time for Rotavirus.
It is incredible the way an illness is viewed and how that changes when the government has a 'plan' for it.
Until a vaccine existed, the Rotavirus was a sickness and diarrhoea bug, nearly every child would get it, several times sometimes, but it is clearly something that helps build immunity. As we get older we are less susceptible to it and in fact you hardly ever hear of adults getting S & D.
Suddenly it is termed 'killer diarrhoea' and great emphasis on the complications that arise with this virus, plus the expense to the NHS and loss of working time (to look after a child!!!)
All the figures that make it look like an absolute 'must have' vaccine. Yet more fear instilled in parents. The best way of making people comply is fear!! Fear based medicine - How can that be right?
It is nothing short of a miracle it seems that our children make it to adult hood, having run the gauntlet of all these deadly and extremely harmful diseases that in my day were just childhood illnesses we all got and were 'nursed' through by our mothers.
So all of us that survived several bouts of sickness and diarrhoea as children, and got the measles and chicken pox, bouts of flu and all manner of other things, are walking miracles it seems.
I blogged on this earlier on and here is part of that blog
By the age of one, your child will have had a possible 25 vaccines and thank goodness none are compulsory!
Well what is the Rotavirus and what is the history behind this vaccine.
The Rotavirus is something that all children will very likely get and that we as children all probably had as well, the great thing is that after the first bout of it, your own immunity offers a good deal of protection to the second bout and therefore it is less severe and as we move into adult hood, our own immunity has us virtually covered for it - perfect!! just as it should be, a healthy immune system that has developed its own defence to this virus and the cases of it occurring in adult hood are rare.
So what are the symptoms of this virus and what should we do if our children get it?
First it is a sickness and diarrhoea bug with a possible fever. Well, children get these symptoms quite often and can come from all manner of viruses, so are we going to vaccinate them for all of them eventually?
This is a virus that can so easily be prevented by good hygiene, such as hand washing after going to the toilet, washing hands before eating and being careful in general cleanliness between children - do we really need a vaccine to replace general basic hygiene?
Well the rotavirus like most of these viruses are quite contagious and any illness between children can spread quickly, but that is the beauty of getting childhood illnesses and having them over and done with so we become healthier and stronger adults.
The NHS website states that only 1.5% of children that get gastroenteritis require hospitalisation and that is due to the child being allowed to get dehydrated. This site infers that this is a mild condition that can in the majority be managed very easily
When anyone suffers diarrhoea , dehydration is a possibility and so it is important to keep fluids up and the sugar/salt balance in the body stable with rehydration solutions. Fluids are more important than food at this point and my favourite solution for sickness and diarrhoea is a small amount of Coca Cola with a pinch of good sea salt for older children and for babies, there are numerous preparations that you can get from your chemist that mimic this.
It gives a good salt/sugar balance and is the best use of this drink that in usual circumstances I wouldn't touch.
Keep the communal areas well sanitised, so handles and toilets and towels etc should all be kept clean and minimise the cross infection. Washing of toys as the germs can live on toys for a bit longer.
So are we to vaccinate for the absence of basic hygiene and good parenting and risk all that vaccines can do to our children.
Fever is a natural response in the body and so again good parenting to manage the fever by watching to make sure it doesn't make your child delirious or risk a fit, but can be allowed to do its job in the body, keeping it under control by sponging down with warm water and not reaching for the tablets or for the Imodium.
Roughly 4 children a year die from this virus, and of course no death is acceptable, but do we ban cars that cause many more children's deaths a year, or smoking that causes the NHS to spend far more on treating the effects of this unnecessary activity - of course not, but why not?
In June 2007 there was a call for a vaccine to prevent this virus and of course drug companies were only too willing to oblige as yet another way for them to make money. But this first attempt at the vaccine was withdrawn as it caused intussusception, which is when the bowel folds in on itself and cause obstruction - the exact opposite to the Rotavirus then!
Why did the vaccine effect the bowel in this way? What has changed? Well when it comes to getting your baby vaccinated with this little number, ask your Dr what went wrong with the first one and why it would have done that and what possibly can go wrong with this one, after all they didn't put the last vaccine out thinking it would do that now did they?
So we don't want to go from symptoms that we as parents can manage to a problem we can not or that can lead to further problems for our children's health later in life with this mass of vaccines and the accumulative effect of vaccine adjuvents.
Drugs can not be tested on children, so it really is 'guess work' to some extent, how these things will pan out in our children's bodies.
This virus is a bigger problem in developing nations where clean drinking water and sanitation are not possible, but to give a vaccine is still not the answer, in fact from the study carried out on a group of 8000 Bangladeshi Children and was published in the British Medical Journal, we ourselves could learn something for our children.
This was a very thorough study that was given much praise in the way it was carried out.
Basically it looked to see if zinc would shorten the length of the condition and prevent less hospital admission and improve both morbidity and mortality.
One group was given just the Oral Rehydration Solution and the other group were given both the ORS and just 20mg of zinc!
The combination technique using the zinc very significantly lowered the rates of morbidity and mortality.It also cut the use of antibiotics!
The overall conclusion was that this therapy had substantial benefits from a simple and inexpensive treatment.
Now the World Health Organisation (WHO) reviewed the findings of Abdullah Baqui from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and concluded that zinc supplements are efficacious in reducing the severity and duration of the illness, however it said further research was needed to ascertain whether the use of zinc was practical in the developing world.
Just 20mg of zinc per person as opposed to a vaccine that will be costing more than zinc. Zinc being a safer method also.
Unbelievable - so what might be the real reason WHO wouldn't want to go for a cost effective option that had such a well controlled study backing it, the kind they put so much store behind.
Actually who wouldn't want to go for a cost effective option?
How powerful are the drug companies?
No patent on zinc of course so no money to be made.
Don't forget that zinc could help your child's condition too - seek the help of an expert in vitamins and minerals which is not, in most cases, your Dr, I hasten to add
Please ask your doctor or nurse to tell you what is in the vaccines you are letting your children have. You don't just want to be told that its nothing that isn't safe, that is not the same answer. If they can't tell you - come back when they can and that you are satisfied you know the ingredients.
Supermarkets sell many products that we make decisions on not to buy because of their ingredients, do the same for vaccines.
Don't be a sheep - be a parent.
Taking some time off work to look after our children when they are sick should be acceptable in a civilised country and sticking yet another jab into these little bodies is not the answer - it is creating a bigger problem.
At any one vaccine appointment with a nurse, your child could be vaccinated for several conditions all at once. Nature doesn't give us all these diseases in one go, she knows our bodies couldn't cope with it, so what do we think we are doing?
Remember that none of these can be tested on children, that is unethical! not unethical to give them once someone has deemed them ok though - but how can that arise?
I have left lots of questions hanging in the air - that i did deliberately as these are the questions we should have the answers to before we agree to this.
Remember vaccines are not compulsory and don't fall victim to peer pressure or assume they are safe.
What are we going to see a rise of in a few years as a result of this vaccine then!
