Who Needs DTaP Vaccine?

Doctors recommend that all children receive the DTaP vaccine series to prevent the spread of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. Infants receive a series of five doses of the vaccine beginning at two months of age. The remaining doses occur at four months, six months, between 15 and 18 months, and the final dosage before entering school between four and six years of age. Most children who receive the full series of the shots are protected throughout their childhood from contracting these diseases.

Certain considerations need to be taken before the shot is administered to prevent potential side effects. Delay the shot when the child has a moderate to severe sickness until they recover. Avoid the vaccine in the event of a previous life-threatening allergic reaction, seizure or fever over 105 degrees F to the DTaP vaccine. Children who experienced a nervous system or brain disease within seven days of a previous DTaP vaccine should not receive another dose.

Children over the age of seven years old, adolescents and adults receive a different version of the vaccine called Tdap. This single dose vaccine protects against the same diseases, but it is formulated for people ages 11 through 64 years old.

What is DTaP?

A formula of Diphtheria toxoid, tetanus vaccine and acellular pertussis create the protective immunization shot. The DTaP immunization contains a combination of vaccines and provides protection against three bacterial illnesses.

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection spread from person to person. The infection causes a thick coating in the back of the throat, which leads to difficulty breathing, heart failure, paralysis and even death.

Tetanus, also called lockjaw, enters the body through open wounds or cuts. People with tetanus experience painful muscle contractions and tightening all over the body, especially the jaw. Death occurs in every two out of ten reported cases.

Pertussis, or whopping cough, is a highly contagious disease spread from person to person. In children, coughing spells reduce the ability to eat, drink and breathe. Whopping cough can last for weeks and lead to seizures, pneumonia, brain damage and even death.

DTaP Side Effects

Approximately twenty-five percent of children who receive the DTaP vaccine experience minor side effects. These include low-grade fever, redness, swelling or tenderness at the injection site. Additionally, children may become fussiness, tiredness or vomiting following the immunization.

Moderate to severe side effects occur less frequently and include seizures; non-stop crying that lasts over three hours and fever over 105 degrees F. Rarely, children experience life-threatening allergic reactions and permanent brain damage.

In some cases, children may experience rare but serious side effects. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services links brachial neuritis, Gillian-Barre syndrome and Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis to the DTaP vaccine. Brachial neuritis causes inflammation of nerve bundles in the shoulder, arms and fingers and results in muscle weakness or atrophy. Gillian-Barre syndrome has no cure and includes symptoms of blurred vision, paralysis and low blood pressure. Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, ADEM, causes headaches, lethargy, weight loss, vomiting, seizures and coma.

Most DTaP side effects can be reduced with a dose of aspirin-free pain reliever at the time of the vaccine and for the following 24 hours. Follow the package instructions for proper dosage amounts and frequency.

This is all over vaccine refusers’ websites, one of which has made the claim that there has been a ruling in the U.S. that a thiomersal preservative in an MMR vaccine caused autism.

However, in three federal courts and three cases, judges ruled that there were no links between MMR and autism.

However, refusing vaccines is leading to increases in outbreaks of infectious diseases. Early May, there were reports in the U.K. press that Liverpool has seen the largest outburst of measles since the introduction of the MMR vaccine. Almost 25% of the confirmed cases were in patients under a year old, which is too young to have the vaccine.  They would usually have been protected by the “herd immunity”.

As part of autism awareness month, here is some of the latest research and findings released throughout April.

The quest to unravel the mystery — and get children and families the help they need — has become more urgent as autism has become more widely diagnosed. The condition now affects one in 88 children, according to a report last month from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet researchers today also say they’re beginning to make progress, perhaps for the first time, in understanding the autistic brain. Scientists are getting a glimpse of what might go wrong in early brain development, says Sarah Paterson, a developmental psychologist at Children’s Hospital.

And while some of the field’s most exciting discoveries have come only in the past year or two, researchers such as Paterson say the findings could soon make a real difference . A decade from now, she expects doctors to diagnose the condition earlier and treat it more effectively, at least for children whose family history singles them out as high-risk.

Szabo, Liz. “Autism science is moving ‘stunningly fast’.”USA Tody. 30 04 2012:  <http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-04-08/Autism-science-research-moving-faster/54134028/1>.

According to Naturalnews.com, Laura Hewitson and her colleagues at UP conducted the type of proper safety research on typical childhood vaccination schedules. What the team discovered completely deconstructs the mainstream false notation that vaccines pose no risk of autism.

Presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research(IMFAR) in London, England, the findings revealed that young macaque monkeys given the typical CDC-recommended vaccination schedule from the 1990s, and in appropriate doses for the monkeys’ sizes and ages, tended to develop autism symptoms. Their unvaccinated counterparts, on the other hand, developed no such symptoms, which points to a strong connection between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders.

Those who take the most antibiotics become drug-resistant bacteria factories, and they can spread their drug-resistant strains to others around them, according to SaneVaxInc. Their risk of developing superbugs rises proportionally to the frequency and duration of their taking prescription antibiotics.

A study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, shows the need for better education about the vaccines and their limitations. Some adolescent girls who get the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer seem to think they no longer need to practice safe sex!

The authors said the study was limited in that subjects came from a single urban clinic serving low-income clients so the findings may not apply to more general populations.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, but some authors have been awarded research grants from Merck.

For their analysis, Carrasco, a researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and her colleagues examined PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov for randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled trials — considered the gold standard in medical research — supporting the use of SSRIs and similar antidepressants in children with autism.

Overall, the 365 participants in the six studies showed a small response to the SSRIs, but that association disappeared when the researchers accounted for the studies that were completed but never published.

When only positive findings get published, and negative ones never see the light of day, the evidence on a topic is said to be subject to “publication bias.”

While most recover from measles, mumps and rubella, they can also be uncomfortable and consequences can be serious.

Complications of measles include: diarrhea, ear infections, pneumonia and encephalitis, which is brain inflammation.

Complications of Mumps include meningitis, deafness and inflammation of the pancreas. It can also damage the testicles in boys and cause them infertility. It can cause the ovaries to swell in girls.

While rubella, also known as German measles, is often a mild illness, it can be harmful to pregnant women. If a woman becomes infected during her first 16 weeks of pregnancy, it’s very likely to affect her unborn baby, causing blindness, deafness, brain damage and heart damage. It can also lead to miscarriage. If a woman becomes infected within 16 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, there’s a risk the baby will be deaf. After 20 weeks of pregnancy, there is no increased risk.

Side effects of MMR vaccinations are mild – much milder than the serious consequences of actually having measles, mumps or rubella.

The chance of getting encephalitis after the MMR vaccine is one in a million.

If you are concerned about risks and side effects, talk to your general practitioner before having your child vaccinated.

According to VaccinesToday, the decision suggests the vaccine currently in use needs to be updated because it is not protecting against some of the upcoming strains of influenza. The World Health Organization’s recommendation comes as European health authorities suggested flu epidemics in some European countries may be set to peak.

It is even possible to get an exemption from vaccines. All states have some sort of way. West virginia and Mississippi have medical exemptions while the other forty-eight  states have religious and/or philosophical in addition to medical. There are also web sites with lists of doctors who will see children whose parents don’t want to vaccinate them or prefer an alternate schedule.

The claim is there is no “science” to support a connection between vaccines and autism but there are plenty of stories by parents who watched their children have adverse reactions after receiving a vaccine. Don’t give up, it’s your child and your right.