Over the years, vaccines have been suspected to cause autism. A substance called thimerosal found in the mercury based vaccines that are used as a preservative has been the major point of discussion in vaccination. Even after research not finding a link between autism and thimerosal, many cases of autism have developed after, children have come from vaccination. At a time around 5000 families including the family of Hannah, claimed damages after a national vaccination program was blamed for causing autism to their children. In the case of Hannah the federals did agree that autism in her resulted from receiving vaccines. In 2001, the government resulted in vaccinating children with vaccines free from autism. Hannah happened to have been vaccinated in 2000 and therefore did not fall in this bracket. Vaccines have been described as one of the major discoveries of the medical world, but now are a major concern for mothers on whether or not to trust them. The mystery lies that even after thimerosal was removed from vaccines administered to children, autism is still on the increase. Children with some undiscovered medical conditions like Hannah have been found to react differently to vaccines. It has now become an uphill task for paediatricians to convince parents of the importance of taking their children for vaccination programs especially today where children are receiving far much more vaccines than they used to receive some years back.
However one thing the medical society is very sure about is that the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks of having them. Children who do not receive the vaccination have been found to develop the diseases later and may come in very acute ways. Not only missing the vaccination can cause development of the disease later, but also delays in it. It should never be made optional for parents to take their children for vaccination, it should be mandatory considering the risks they do expose their children to later in life if they don’t. It is only just to safeguard the child early enough. Parents with doubt have been advised to consult paediatricians in order for them to be advised on the interval of vaccination appropriate for their children. Some vaccines have been very successful like that of the Invasive Hip Disease. Before its vaccine was developed children used to suffer much from it and sometimes even resulted to death. Since the vaccine was developed, death from the disease has not been recorded in 20 years. This is how important a vaccine is.
References
Wallis, Claudia. "Case Study: Autism and Vaccines." Time. Time Inc., 10 Mar. 2008. Web. 06 Feb. 2014. <http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0%2C8599%2C1721109%2C00.html>.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
