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What if you don't immunize your child?
While most state laws provide for religious or personal exemptions to required
immunizations, concerned parents should still consider the consequences of not immunizing their children.
Without immunizations, your child is at greater risk of catching
one of the vaccine-preventable diseases.
Vaccines were developed to protect
individuals from dangerous
and sometimes deadly diseases. Vaccines are safe and effective, and
such diseases are still a threat.
- Pertussis or "whooping cough" is an extremely dangerous disease for infants. It is not easily treated and can result in permanent brain damage and death. Between 1997-2000, nearly 30,000 cases of pertussis were reported in the U.S., including 62 pertussis-related deaths. Of infected infants younger than age 6 months, two-thirds needed to be hospitalized.
- Measles is dangerous and very contagious. During the 1989-1991 U.S. measles epidemic, approximately 55,000 cases and 132 deaths (mostly children) were reported.
- Diphtheria is an infectious disease of the nose and throat that can lead to serious breathing problems, heart failure, paralysis, and even death. In recent years, there have been few cases of diphtheria in the U.S. However, the disease has not been eliminated from the world. A diphtheria epidemic recently occurred in countries of the former Soviet Union where many children and adults had not been immunized. Their reported cases of diphtheria rose from 839 in 1989 to 47,802 in 1994, when 1,746 persons died. At least 20 infected individuals exported the disease along the way.
- Before the availability of a chickenpox vaccine, almost every child suffered from this disease. Between 1988-1995, up to 10,000 people were hospitalized each year from complications of chickenpox—most of them previously healthy children. An average of 43 children died from chickenpox each year from 1990-1994.
Without immunizations, your child can infect others.
Children who are not immunized
can transmit vaccine-preventable diseases throughout the community.
- Unvaccinated people can pass diseases on to babies who are too young to be fully immunized.
- Unvaccinated people pose a threat to children and adults who can't be immunized for medical reasons. This includes people with leukemia and other cancers, HIV/AIDS and other immune system problems, and persons receiving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or large doses of corticosteroids.
- Unvaccinated people can infect the small percentage of children whose immunizations did not "take."
Without immunizations, your child may have to be excluded at times from
school or child care.
During disease outbreaks, unimmunized children may be excluded from school or child care until the outbreak is over, both for their own protection and for the protection of others. This causes hardship for the child and parent.
What to do...
As a parent, you must make a choice, and while we strongly encourage you
to immunize your child, ultimately the decision is yours. We hope you discuss
your concerns with a trusted health care provider or call the immunization
coordinator at your local or state health department. Your final decision affects
not only the health of your child, but the health of your child's friends and
their families, classmates, neighbors, faith community members, and family
members.
For more information about vaccines, go to:
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