Immunizations: Truths, Myths and Everything in Between

When I'm not sitting in front of my computer typing time away, I'm generally rushing around the hospital. I hustle from patient room to room, my mind racing through medication interactions, and scrambling to remember a fact or two about the multiple disease processes I learned in nursing school. Right now, I'm working on a medical overflow unit, so I see a bit of everything. It's stressful and busy, but I learn a lot. There seems to be something new and previously unheard of to me everyday. I certainly don't claim to be an expert, and no, I didn't go to medical school. Regardless, I'm here to share a bit about what I do know from my education and my career thus far.

The Battle: It seems that there is no happy conclusion being reached concerning the safety, effectiveness, and benefit of the many vaccinations offered throughout our lifetimes. Medicine itself wages a continuous war against those who have spoken out with horror stories about the dark side of immunizations. When searching "myths and truths about vaccinations" in google search, one becomes buried beneath a pile of so called facts. There are websites dedicated to every opinion: the good the bad, the ugly and everything in between. How does one sort through all this information to make the right decision about whether a immunization is right for them or their children? I'm hoping to make that sorting a bit easier. Perhaps I'm just adding to the jumble that's already out there, but I hope this helps none the less.

1. Vaccines will just make you sick.

Yes, I am guilty of believing this myth. I had never gotten a flu vaccine until I was somewhat forced into it last year. The next day, I woke up with a sore arm... and the flu. No matter how fishy this seems, the truth is it wasn't the flu vaccine that caused me to stay in bed for the next week. There are many different ways of creating a vaccine, and all are crafted with the purpose of helping your body develop antibodies against an antigen (the substance that elicits an immune response).

• Killed vaccines: These vaccines contain previously virulent microorganisms which have been destroyed. They can't make you ill, but your body still recognizes them and builds up its defense in case it encounters the live vaccine. (Examples include: Influenza, Polio, Hepatitis A and Rabies vaccine.)
• Attenuated vaccines: These are vaccines in which the virulence of the pathogen had been reduced. Again, your body is able to create an immune response without being harmed by the vaccine itself. (Examples include: Yellow fever, Mumps, Measles, and Rubella vaccine.)
• Protein subunit: This vaccine contains a fragment of a microorganism, rather than using an inactivated or attenuated microbe as describe above. This is still enough to allow the body to create an immune response. (Examples include: Hepatitis B and HPV vaccine.)
• Toxoid: These vaccines are made from inactivated toxic compounds. (Examples include: Tetanus and Diphtheria vaccines.)
• Conjugate: In this method, a bacteria's outer coat is linked to a protein. The immune system is then able to recognize the coat as if it were the antigen, and an immune response is formed. (Examples include: Influenza type B.)

Although it may be difficult to believe, if you get sick shortly after having a vaccine, you were probably already exposed prior to receiving the shot.

2. Vaccines don't actually work.

Vaccines, in fact, will and do work. Here's why:

In general, there are two different types of immunity: Passive and active.

• Passive - Transplacental and colostrum transfer from mother to child (also called "natural passive"), or injection of serum from immune human (also called "artificial passive") allow your body to acquire immunity.
• Active - Natural contact with an antigen through clinical infection (also called "natural active"), or immunization with an antigen (this is where vaccines come into play; also called "artificial active") allows your body to acquire immunity.

It's important to understand that vaccines, such as the oh so common influenza vaccine, are created for a particular strain of the flu virus; whichever is predicted to be the most common strain that year. If you're exposed to a different strain, you will still get the flu, despite being vaccinated. In years when the vaccine was accurate for the most prevalent strain, the flu shot offered a 70-90% protection from the flu.

3. "I don't need a vaccine because I never get sick."

You eat a healthy diet, you exercise, you hardly ever get sick. That's awesome! Keep it up! However, you never get sick... until you do. I'll elaborate on this below, but even if you're already a healthy individual, getting a vaccine can help keep it that way.

In today's world, it's also easy to forget the terrible diseases that were once quite common and deadly. Vaccines have created herd immunity (defined as immunity that occurs when the vaccination of a significant portion of a population provides a measure of protection for individuals who have not developed immunity), and it's something we have to keep going if we don't want to see the past repeat itself.

4. The potential benefits don't outweigh the potential costs.

Texas Children's Hospital has a link through their hospital webpage concerning common myths and truths about common childhood vaccines. Here's one example:

Myth: The MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine causes autism.
Fact: This myth arises because the timing of autism diagnosis often coincides with the time of MMR vaccination (age 15-18 months). Affected children, however, often demonstrate signs of autism before this, suggesting another cause. This myth was exaggerated in 1998 after the journalLancet published the Wakefield study of 11 children (8 with autism) who had intestinal complaints and developed autism within 1 month of receiving the MMR vaccine. 10 of the paper's authors, as well as the hospital attended by the patients, have since disassociated themselves from the study. In February 2010, the Lancet retracted the paper. The Institute of Medicine in 2004 and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in 2009 rejected a "causal relationship" between MMR and autism. Numerous large-scale population studies examining hundreds and thousands of children who were examined over long time periods have proven that MMR does not cause autism.

I spent a significant amount of time while in school, examining this exact study by Wakefield. I found it very interesting, and it's part of my inspiration for writing this Hub. Here's where I leave it up to you. Take action and be a participant in your own health. Don't just take the word of your doctor or other healthcare professional. Do your research and make sure your research does not stop at the first article you read. Well rounded research can help you make the correct decision about what's right for you and your health. Go to a healthcare professional with your educated concerns. We are all unique and experience different health complications than the person standing next to us. Therefore, what's good for one person, may not in fact be good for another. The power is in your hands!